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Non-Tech : Banks--- Betting on the recovery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: damainman who wrote (77)	2/23/2009 12:51:56 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1428

Loans at Seven-Week High By Tony Crescenzi There's so much talk these days about how banks are not making loans that just about everyone assumes that banks aren't lending, even though the nation's top bankers have told the nation that their banks are in fact lending. Recent data corroborate their statements. New data released late Friday by the Federal Reserve for the week ended Feb. 11 indicate that new loans and leases at the nation's commercial banks increased $14.4 billion to $7.164 trillion, the third gain in four weeks and the highest level of loans in this category in seven weeks. While the latest tally is about $108 billion below the peak in October, the peak tally was about $350 billion more than in August, primarily because commercial paper issuers had turned to banks for money, drawing on their credit lines when the commercial paper market froze. The Federal Reserve stabilized the CP market, leading to a drop in bank loans, until recently. Data on bank lending remain key to watch for signs of thawing in the credit crisis. The data are released every Friday in the Federal Reserve's release on the assets and liabilities of commercial banks. More important in the immediate period ahead is whether the Fed is successful in reviving the asset-backed securities market, where virtually no credit is flowing.