Federal Reserve Bulletin, Volume 93, 2007 Current Bulletin

Profits and Balance Sheet Developments at U.S. Commercial Banks in 2007

Figure 12. Net percentage of selected banks reporting tighter standards for consumer lending, 1996-2007. Data plotted as curves. Two panels. In the top panel, the curve for credit card loans begins in 1996 at about 25 percent, rises to reach about 50 percent in late 1996, and declines, on balance, to reach about negative 3 percent in late 2000. It rises to reach about 20 percent in mid-2001 and then moves in a range of between about 10 percent and 20 percent through mid-2003. It declines, on balance, to about negative 8 percent in mid-2005 and then fluctuates between positive and negative 5 percent through early 2007. In the bottom panel, the curve for consumer loans other than credit card loans begins in the first quarter of 1996 at about 15 percent, rises to a peak of about 25 percent in late 1996, then declines, on balance, to about zero percent at the end of 1999. It rises to reach about 19 percent in early 2001, then moves in a range of between about 20 percent and 10 percent through mid-2003, when it declines to about 2 percent. Continuing this downward trend, it declines, on balance, to reach negative 10 percent in mid-2005; it rises to zero percent in early 2006, moving in a range between zero percent and negative 5 percent through early 2007 and rising twofold for each quarter of 2007, with a final value of about 26 percent.

Note: See figure 6, general note and source note.

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