Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey
The Federal Reserve recently released the results of its Senior Loan Officer Opinion survey for the third quarter 2010.
The good news such as it is: banks appear to be continuing their gradual easing in lending standards for commercial and industrial (C & I) loans to large and medium sized businesses, a trend observed beginning in December 2009. Also, banks, for the first time since the end of 2006, appear to be easing their standards for C & I loans to small businesses.
Now for the bad news: The survey reported that banks were continuing to tighten, albeit at a slower pace, standards for commercial real estate loans and we should expect this reticence to lend on commercial real estate to continue until lenders see some light at the end of the economic tunnel.
The survey will be updated on November 10, 2010.
Source: DismalScientist (www.economy.com).