New York Times, July 28, 2008 – Worried Banks Sharply Reduce Business Loans

Federal Reserve Board Current Survey: “The April 2008 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices addressed changes in the supply of, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months.1 Special questions in the survey queried banks about changes in terms on home equity lines of credit and about their student loan programs. This article is based on responses from 56 domestic banks and 21 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks.

In the April survey, domestic and foreign institutions reported having further tightened their lending standards and terms on a broad range of loan categories over the previous three months. The net fractions of domestic banks reporting tighter lending standards were close to, or above, historical highs for nearly all loan categories in the survey. Compared with the January survey, the net fractions of banks that tightened lending standards increased significantly for consumer and commercial and industrial (C&I) loans. Demand for bank loans from both businesses and households reportedly weakened further, on net, over the past three months, although by less than had been the case over the previous survey period.”