Roundup: Fed Sees Loosening of CRE Underwriting.

Washington -- Banks' commercial real estate lending underwriting standards have eased slightly over the past three months while standards for residential mortgages remained more or less unchanged, the Federal Reserve said in its most recent senior loan officer opinion survey.

A "moderate net fraction of banks" saw "eased lending standards for commercial real estate loans over the past three months," according to the Fed.

"Almost one-fourth of the domestic respondents, on net, had eased lending standards on commercial real estate loans over the past three months, about the same fraction as in the January survey," the Fed said. "All but one of the 12 foreign branches and agencies active in commercial real estate lending reported unchanged standards. On net, 20% of the domestic respondents reported stronger demand for these loans in the April survey, nearly the same fraction as in the January survey. One-third of the foreign banks noted that demand had increased somewhat over the past three months, up from 15% in January."

Credit standards on residential mortgages "were largely unchanged, on net, in the April survey, in contrast to a small net easing of standards in January," according to the Fed.

Meanwhile, "On the demand side, domestic and, to a lesser degree, foreign banks reported an increase in demand for ... commercial real estate loans," the Fed added. "Also, a noticeably smaller net fraction of domestic banks reported weaker demand for residential mortgages ... than had done so in the January survey."

" ... Though demand for residential mortgage loans reportedly weakened again over the past three months, the net fraction of banks reporting lower demand fell to 18%, compared with about 25% in the past two surveys," said the Fed.

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