WASHINGTON — Loan quality improved slightly over the past six weeks while demand was stable to weak, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Board.
The central bank's "Beige Book" cited only one district — the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — which reported a modest increase in consumer loan demand, while conditions in the New York, Kansas City and San Francisco districts ranged from unchanged to slightly weaker. Business loan demand was moderately stronger in the Philadelphia, Cleveland and St. Louis regions, while New York, Chicago, Kansas City and San Francisco were unchanged or weaker.
The Fed said most districts reported loan quality as generally improving and said credit standards were "largely unchanged." The Cleveland Fed reported a decline in delinquencies across all loan categories, while Richmond and Kansas City also "indicated a continued strengthening in loan quality."
In New York, however, the story was somewhat different. The New York Fed said delinquency rates increased on most loan categories while banks tightened standards for commercial mortgages and commercial and industrial loans.
