THE VALUE of deposits held in Ireland’s banks by household consumers continued to fall in the third quarter of 2011, new data has revealed.

Statistics compiled by the Central Bank show that at the end of September, retail banks held €86.52 billion of deposits from Irish personal customers.

This was down from the last available statistics, compiled at the end of June – when banks held just over €87bn of household deposits.

The new statistics mark the fourth successive quarter in which private household deposits in banks has fallen; the total amount of deposits is now almost €8.7 billion off its peak of over €95 million in the second quarter of 2009.

The statistics also show that the amount owed by households for house purchasing has fallen to its lowest since the third quarter of 2008, when the housing market becan to collapse.

While banks held €123.7 billion in home loans at that time, they now hold under €98 billion of such loans – the lowest amount since the end of 2005.

Total lending to households is now at €117.9 billion – down by well over a fifth from a peak of just under €150 billion in the first quarter of 2008.

Central Bank tells banks to scrap certain ‘out-of-order’ account charges