Net Share of Banks Willing to Make Consumer Installment Loan Ticks Higher
The Federal Reserve Board’s October 2025 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices (SLOOS) is out. The report in both the businesses and consumer spheres provides voluminous information on commercial banks’ lending standards and visibility into demand for credit. Next Tuesday’s edition of AFSA’s Economy Matters newsletter will cover the SLOOS results in more detail, but one item is worth noting in the meantime.
The October SLOOS asked lenders about their willingness to make nonresidential consumer installment loans in the third quarter of this year compared to the second. These loans are defined by the Fed as non-mortgage “consumer loans with a set number of scheduled payments, such as auto loans, student loans, and personal loans.”
A large majority of lenders (86.2 percent) as expected reported their willingness to make a consumer installment loan was unchanged. However, a larger share (10.3 percent) reported they were more willing to make such a loan than reported less of a willingness (3.4 percent) to do so. Although the margin between those more willing and less willing was only 6.9 percentage points, it increased for the third consecutive quarter to its highest since early 2022. Hopefully this is an early sign of more credit easing to come.
November 13th, 2025
