Banks are raising their credit standards for mortgages, consumer loans and commercial real estate loans at a pace never seen in the 17-year history of the Fed's quarterly survey of senior bank loan officers, the Fed said.
Plain-vanilla business loans were also much harder to obtain, the Fed said.
Banks expect more delinquencies and charge offs for most types of loans to consumers and businesses, the survey said. Banks said they were tightening their lending standards in response to weaker economy, reduced tolerance of risk, and decreased liquidity in secondary markets.
The survey backs up the Federal Open Market Committee's comments last week that credit conditions had tightened considerably, a factor that led to the FOMC to slash interest rates by an unprecedented 125 basis points in two weeks.
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FMM Comment: Three things are happening here.
- Banks are hoarding cash because Bank Reserves Go Negative
- People can't or don't want to borrow
- Banks can't or don't want to lend
Something the Fed can NOT do is force people to borrow. It can only sweeten the deal with low rates. So, if you are struggling to either inhale or exhale, you are suffocating, like the credit markets are doing now. It is just a matter of time, unless some "miracle" happens, before the credit market will turn blue in the face and collapse. And that, is called Deflation.
