Economy
February 7, 2014
The January 2014 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices
Written by Peter Wright
Once a quarter the Federal Reserve surveys the senior loan officers of domestic banks and U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks. Questions cover changes in the standards and terms of the banks’ lending and the state of business and household demand for loans.
The January survey preamble was as follows: “The January 2014 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices addressed changes in the standards and terms on, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months. Domestic banks, on balance, reported having eased their lending standards on many types of business and consumer loans and having experienced increases in loan demand, on average, over the past three months. The survey contained two sets of special questions. The first set asked about effects of the supervisory guidance on leveraged lending issued on March 21, 2013. The second set of questions asked banks about the outlook for loan performance for different categories of lending over 2014. This summary is based on the responses from 75 domestic banks and 21 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks.
