Banks reporting tougher credit standards

Tightening comes in wake of recent failures

WASHINGTON – A Federal Reserve report Monday showed that banks raised their lending standards for business and consumer loans in the aftermath of three large bank failures and expect to lift them more this year, a trend that could slow the economy in coming months and increases the risk of a recession.

The report, known as the senior loan officers survey, asked banks if they have tightened their lending standards by taking steps such as demanding higher credit scores, charging higher interest rates, or requiring more collateral, among other steps, that altogether would make it harder for businesses and consumers to obtain loans.

About 46% of all banks said they had raised standards for business loans known as commercial and industrial loans, up from just under 45% in the previous quarter. That increase was not as dramatic as in previous quarters, but banks were tightening credit before the bank failures. A year ago, slightly more banks were easing credit standards than raising them. Now nearly half are tightening.

At the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, that figure topped 80%.

The Fed’s survey also found that a majority of banks plan to tighten their credit further this year.

“That will starve firms and households of credit and help push the economy into recession in the second half of this year,” Michael Pearce, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note.

Other economists say it is hard to know exactly when a pullback in lending will start to slow the economy and by how much. Federal Reserve staff economists have also forecast a “mild recession” for later this year, in part because of an expected reduction in lending.

Last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the turmoil in the banking sector could slow the economy and help the central bank in reducing inflation, which would mean the Fed wouldn’t have to raise interest rates as high as it would otherwise.

“In principle, we won’t have to raise the rates quite as high as we would have had this not happened,” Powell said.

Also Monday, Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said he is hearing from business contacts that banks are starting to rein in lending. He suggested that could mean the Fed would limit its rate hikes. The

Investment Research.

One bright spot was Tyson’s prepared foods business, which produces brands like Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park and Sara Lee. Sales volumes were flat but prices rose 2% and Tyson said its products gained market share.

“Branded food is our best opportunity to drive faster growth, higher margins and stronger results,” King said.

King also expressed confidence that global demand for meat will grow as incomes increase, even if U.S. demand flattens.

“We’ve been through market cycles before. I’ve been through them before myself. And we’ve always come out stronger on the other side,” King said.

Tyson’s second quarter revenue was flat at $13.13 billion, which is a little short of expectations.

Tyson Foods Inc. now anticipates fiscal 2023 revenue of $53 billion to $54 billion. Its previous forecast was for revenue between $55 billion and $57 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Factset had expected revenue of $55.19 billion.