Oct 14 -- The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) invites comment by December 14, 2020 on a proposal to extend for three years, without revision, the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices (FR 2018; OMB No. 7100-0058).
The Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices is conducted with a senior loan officer at each respondent bank, generally through electronic submission, up to six times a year. The purpose of the survey is to provide qualitative and limited quantitative information on credit availability and demand, as well as evolving developments and lending practices in the U.S. loan markets. A portion of each survey typically covers special topics of timely interest. There is the option to survey other types of respondents (such as other depository institutions, bank holding companies, or other financial entities) should the need arise. The survey provides crucial information for monitoring and understanding the evolution of lending practices at banks and developments in credit markets.
In the last several years, the survey has provided critical information on a number of important banking topics. Recent special questions have addressed issues in rapidly changing credit markets banks’ lending terms and outlook for commercial real estate lending standards and demand, banks’ assessments of the levels of their lending standards relative to longer-term norms, and banks’ expectations about changes in asset quality and credit standards over the coming year. Regarding lending to households, the survey has provided valuable information on timely topics including the asset quality of consumer loans in areas most affected by falling energy prices, and the likelihood of approving credit card applications by borrowers’ credit score. In addition, the survey helped shed light on broader issues, such as the relationship between banks’ lending policies and movements in the yield curve for Treasury securities.
For a number of years the survey has included approximately 25 questions designed to measure changes in credit standards and terms on bank loans and perceived changes in the demand for bank credit. The survey has also normally included a number of special questions about developments in banking practices. The Federal Reserve distributes two versions of the survey, one to domestically chartered institutions and one to U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks. The survey tailored to the branches and agencies of foreign banks contains fewer questions. Specifically, it omits both the recurring and the special questions on residential mortgage and consumer lending because the branches and agencies typically make few, if any, loans to households.
Although the specific questions to be asked on each survey have not yet been formulated, the questions are designed to obtain information that is customarily and actually treated as private by the institution. Thus, the individual survey responses from each respondent may be held confidential under exemption (4) of the Freedom of Information Act. However, certain data from the survey is publically reported in aggregate form, and the information in aggregate form is made publicly available and not considered confidential.
Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices webpage:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/data/sloos.htm
FR notice:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/10/14/2020-22721/proposed-agency-information-collection-activities-comment-request
Draft supporting statement:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/reportforms/formsreview/FR%202018%20OMB%20SS.pdf