Loan Officers Say Q4 Credit Standards Tightened Slightly

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Credit standards for approving card applications tightened slightly or not at all for more than 90% of banks in the last three months of 2008, according to a senior loan officer opinion survey on bank lending practices released yesterday by the Federal Reserve. Nearly 53% of respondents said credit card standards "tightened somewhat," and 41.2% said their standards remained unchanged. Some 5.9% of respondents said credit standards "tightened considerably." Survey results are based on responses from 53 domestic banks and 23 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks. Only 2.9% of banks "somewhat" increased credit lines of existing card customers. Nearly 60% of respondents said credit lines were unchanged, while 32.4% of respondents said lines of credit "decreased somewhat." Some 46.9% of banks reported that their minimum required credit score for new and existing credit card accounts "increased somewhat." The remaining 53.1% reported no change.