Both commercial real estate and residential loans are on therise in nearly all of the 12 Federal Reserve districts.

Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Kansas City,Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, Va., San Franciscoand St. Louis make up the Fed's 12 districts.

According to the Fed's Beige Book released Wednesday, banks reported strongdemand for CRE loans in the Cleveland, Richmond and Kansas Citydistricts.

Auto lending also increased in the Cleveland and Atlantadistricts while Philadelphia and Dallas cited growth inenergy-related loan demand.

San Francisco continued to report a slowdown in venture capitaland private equity activity, but contacts noted an increase in thenumber of private technology companies moving toward an IPO, theBeige Book reported.

Meanwhile, asset quality improved at banks in the Philadelphia,Kansas City and San Francisco districts. Philadelphia, Richmond,Atlanta and San Francisco lenders reported high competition forqualified borrowers, according to the Fed.

Borrowing standards were reported to have been loosened in somedistricts. Atlanta contacts noted additional loan capacity, butcontinued to be cautious with loan activity.

Cleveland bankers considered cost cutting measures, includinglayoffs, due to shrinking net interest margins, the Fed said.

New York contacts indicated a decrease in loan spreads for allloan categories, particularly residential mortgages, and bankers inthe Chicago district said that very few mortgage originations werebeing kept on their balance sheets and that interest rate swapswere being utilized to hedge against a potential rise in interestrates.

Bankers were generally optimistic about future activity in thePhiladelphia and Dallas districts for the near term, but Atlantabankers expected activity to ease toward the middle of theyear.

Analysis of the Fed's districts was prepared at the FederalReserve Bank of Kansas City and based on information collected onor before Feb. 22.

The Fed's Beige Book is available online.