Loan demand and conditions remained largely unchanged in the third quarter, with some easing of credit standards for consumer and auto loans, according to a survey of senior loan officers conducted by the Federal Reserve.
The central bank published Monday the results of its quarterly senior loan officer opinion survey, which said the demand and credit conditions for commercial and industrial loans and commercial real estate loans were "little changed" from the second quarter. The report noted some banks had tightened their C&I loan standards, particularly for middle-market and large-scale borrowers.
The commercial real estate market had experienced similar results, with survey respondents indicating that "standards on loans…remained about unchanged" while demand for all classes of CRE loans appears to have increased. The survey found that of the banks surveyed, 31% said demand for construction and land development loans was moderately increased since the last quarter, while nearly 28% indicated moderate increased demand for nonfarm residential loans and 15% indicated boosted demand for multifamily residential properties.
Banks also said that credit standards for government-sponsored-enterprise-eligible, qualified mortgage nonjumbo and qualified mortgage jumbo loans have eased modestly, while overall demand for those categories of home-purchase loans is either flat or weaker than the previous survey.
"On balance, modest [numbers] of banks indicated having eased standards for credit card loans as well as for auto loans," the report said. "On the demand side, modest net fractions of banks reported weaker demand across most categories of home-purchase loans. In contrast, respondents experienced stronger demand for credit card loans on net."
