Loan officers drop the US' economic anchor with more loan tightening in Q3

The oxygen is removed from our credit-based economy as bank loan officers pump the brakes on easy lending.

Joe Consorti

and

Nik Bhatia

Nov 07, 2023

∙ Paid

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Yesterday we had October’s release of SLOOS, or the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices, for those of us with acronym aversions. This is one of, if not the most consequential report about the health of credit markets in the United States. Trading desks around the world involved in US markets will be poring over SLOOS and positioning themselves according to the data on corporate and consumer lending standards contained within.

Prognosis? Negative.

Banks’ loan officers were surveyed on their lending policies over Q3 2023, where respondents answered whether they’ve tightened, eased, or kept standards unchanged. The too-long-didn’t-read gist of the report is as follows:

Loan officers drop the US' economic anchor with more loan tightening in Q3

The oxygen is removed from our credit-based economy as bank loan officers pump the brakes on easy lending.

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