Exits from deferred consumer and business loans “continue to outweigh new entries for the second straight month in August,” APRA said yesterday in its monthly update.

APRA said that A$24 billion of loans were “expiring or exiting deferral” and $14 billion of entries approved or extended, last month.

The pace of exits slowed over the month, with total exits decreasing 41 per cent from $40 billion in July.

The majority of these loans have returned to a performing status.

As at 31 August, data submitted by ADIs “indicates that $229 billion worth of loans have been granted temporary repayment deferrals, which is around 8.5 per cent of total loans outstanding,” APRA said.

“Housing loans make up the majority of total loans granted repayment deferrals, although small business loans have a higher incidence of repayment deferral with 16.2 per cent of small business loans subject to repayment deferral, compared with 9.0 per cent of housing loans.”