Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Loan officers at U.S. banks reported leaving lending standards for businesses and most commercial real estate unchanged in the fourth quarter, a Federal Reserve survey showed on Monday, although they expect to tighten standards for most types of business loans this year.

The officers also said they were seeing weaker demand for business loans from firms and that interest in most commercial real estate loans was unchanged.

For household loans, it was a mixed picture with loan standards unchanged for residential real estate loans but a less rosy picture for credit cards and auto loans.

“Banks reportedly tightened their lending standards on credit card and auto loans, while demand remained unchanged for credit cards and weakened for auto loans,” the U.S. central bank said in its quarterly survey. Read more.