Consumer demand for loans to finance cars, furniture or technology remains subdued.
The banks in Germany, which specialize in loans, issued new consumer loans with a total volume of 24.9 billion euros in the first half of 2021.
According to the banking association on Tuesday, that was 2.9 percent less than a year earlier.
The second main business area also remained below the previous year's level: Between January and June, the credit banks extended loans totaling 4.1 billion euros to companies and the self-employed, 17 percent less than a year earlier.
"While in the first half of 2020 almost only the second quarter was under the influence of Corona, there were pandemic-related effects in the entire first half of 2021," said the association's managing director, Jens Loa.
At the end of June, the institutes lent a total of 164.3 billion euros to consumers and companies.
The association has 49 member institutes.
Almost half of the total new business of 54.8 billion euros in the first half of the year came from the credit institutions in purchase financing. Association managing director Loa evaluates the strong growth in the pre-financing of the merchants' inventory as a "signal of economic recovery".