ARLINGTON, Va.—Bank loan officers are reporting tighter standards and stronger demand for commercial and industrial loans to firms of all sizes.
The findings were released as part of the Federal Reserve’s July senior loan officer opinion survey(SLOOS) on bank lending practices.
“Those banks who tightened standards overwhelmingly cited the economic outlook as well as a reduced risk tolerance at the bank,” said NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long.
Other findings from the second-quarter survey:
- For loans to households, banks reported unchanged standards for most categories of residential real estate loans and weaker demand for all such loans
- Standards also remained unchanged for all consumer loan categories—that is, credit card loans, auto loans, and other consumer loans—while demand weakened for auto loans and strengthened for credit card and other consumer loans
- The survey also included an additional set of special questions inquiring about banks’ expectations for changes in lending standards over the second half of 2022; banks, on balance, reported expecting lending standards to tighten across all loan categories
The senior loan officer survey was based on responses from 69 domestic banks and 18 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks.