About 60% of U.S. banks said they tightened lending standards on commercial and industrial loans to large and middle-market firms in the past three months, with about 65% of those institutions also saying they tightened lending standards, according to the senior loan officer survey, released by the Federal Reserve Board today.
Banks indicated they tightened selected price terms on C&Is. “About 80% of banks — up from roughly 70% in the April survey — noted that they had increased spreads of loan rates over their cost of funds on C&I loans to large and middle-market firms, and about 70% of respondents — a somewhat higher fraction than in the April survey — reported having widened spreads on loans to small firms. In addition, considerable fractions of domestic respondents reported having boosted non-price-related lending terms on C&I loans to firms of all sizes over the survey period, and the fraction of banks that tightened such terms on loans to small firms increased significantly relative to the April survey,” the Fed said.
