April SLOOS results released

The Federal Reserve Board has released the results of its April 2024 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices, which addressed changes in the standards and terms on, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months, which generally correspond to the first quarter of 2024.

Regarding loans to businesses, survey respondents reported, on balance, tighter standards and weaker demand for commercial and industrial (C&I) loans to firms of all sizes over the first quarter. Meanwhile, banks reported tighter standards and weaker demand for all commercial real estate (CRE) loan categories.

Banks also responded to a set of special questions about changes in lending policies and demand for CRE loans over the past year. For all CRE loan categories, banks reported having tightened all queried lending policies, including the spread of loan rates over the cost of funds, maximum loan sizes, loan-to-value ratios, debt service coverage ratios, and interest-only payment periods.

For loans to households, banks reported that lending standards tightened across some categories of residential real estate (RRE) loans while remaining unchanged for others on balance. Meanwhile, demand weakened for all RRE loan categories. In addition, banks reported tighter standards and weaker demand for home equity lines of credit (HELOCs). Moreover, for credit card, auto, and other consumer loans, standards reportedly tightened and demand weakened.

While banks, on balance, reported having tightened lending standards further for most loan categories in the first quarter, lower net shares of banks reported tightening lending standards than in the fourth quarter of last year across most loan categories.