The monthly Fed survey of bankers and lending says that in July lending conditions remained largely unchanged–that is, relatively tight:
While banks have been easing up since the financial crisis, lending standards remain tighter than they were before the recession. For most loan categories, the survey found large numbers of banks reporting that their current level of lending standards remained tighter than the middle of their historical range since 2005.
The most improvement came in lending to commercial and industrial customers as many businesses rebound from years of extreme caution. Large and middle-market companies saw standards ease the most as their demand picked up and banks competed aggressively for their business. Some banks also eased terms for small-business customers, though demand from those customers remained weak.
Lending to consumers remained relatively downbeat. Despite improvement in demand for credit-card and auto loans, the Fed said, “the pickup in demand was not widespread.” Banks also see little improvement ahead for the housing sector. Three-fourths said they expect originations of residential real estate loans to remain weak through 2011, pointing to “unfavorable or uncertain forecasts for the broad economy and for house prices,” the survey found.
But note negative trend for commercial and industrial loans and for commercial real estate:
As to residential loans, I doubt most of the delinquent or soon to be delinquent home owners would qualify as “prime.” Note this chart does not measure loan volume.
