Recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and American Banker both discuss growth in U.S. banks’ commercial and industrial (C&I) lending. This growth in business lending has come at a time when banks are striving to find ways to catalyze revenue growth.
Banks’ first quarter financials shows particularly strong growth rates in lending to mid-sized commercial clients. The following table shows that for some leading U.S. banks (who break out C&I loan portfolio), middle market lending was stronger than overall C&I lending in the most recent quarter (the exception to this was at U.S. Bank).
|
Bank |
4Q10-1Q11 Change in Average Loan Portfolio |
|
|
Middle Market |
C&I |
|
|
Chase |
+4.5% |
+1.2% |
|
Comerica |
+0.8% |
+0.1% |
|
Key |
+1.0% |
-3.4% |
|
U.S. Bank |
+3.8% |
+4.5% |
In addition, banks reported growth in credit line utilization rates in 1Q11, in some cases for the first time in many quarters:
- Bank of America reported that its middle market revolver utilization rate rose to 35%
- Wells Fargo announced that its wholesale line utilization rate rose by 50 bps in the quarter to 33%
- Chase middle market line utilization increased 100 bps in the quarter to 35%