The Fed’s quarterly senior loan officer survey revealed that 39.7% of
banks tightened credit standards for businesses, 5.7% considerably and
34% somewhat with the balance unchanged. This is down from a total of
64.1% of banks that tightened standards in the previous quarter and
83.6% in the one before. No bank eased standards and none has eased
since July ’07. Less bad comes into play again. With the consumer, the
inevitable driver of the ‘Shoots’ bus, whether it’s green or a shade of
brown, 65% of banks, up from 45%, said they lowered credit limits to
either new or existing credit card customers. About 55% of the banks,
somewhat more than the previous quarter, said they raised minimum
required credit scores on credit card accounts. About 20% of banks saw
weaker demand for consumer loans, “substantially less” than in the Jan
survey.
