A recent survey of bank loan officers conducted by the Federal Reserve suggests that credit unions are still likely to find themselves the only lenders to even some of their most credit worthy members.
The quarterly Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey of Bank Lending Practices included responses from 56 domestic banks and branches of 23 foreign based banks in the U.S., the Federal Reserve said.
According to the survey, over 15% of banks overall reported tightening their credit card lending standards "somewhat" in the first quarter of 2010, with over 78% saying they were keeping them the same and roughly 6% saying they had eased them "somewhat." No banks reported easing them or tightening them "considerably."
Over 26% of the bank officers responding reported that their institutions had tightened their conditions on existing accounts "somewhat" and almost 3% reported having tightened them considerable.
Additionally, over 20% reported their institutions had tightened up "somewhat" on offering credit cards to people whose credit score would not automatically qualify them for the loan.
