Mortgage credit availability decreased in February according to the Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI), a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) which analyzes data from Ellie Mae’s AllRegs Market Clarity business information tool.

The MCAI decreased 1.2 percent to 180.7 in February. A decline in the MCAI indicates that lending standards are tightening, while increases in the index are indicative of loosening credit. The index was benchmarked to 100 in March 2012.

“Credit availability fell in February by 1.2 percent, led downwards by a decline in conventional offerings,” Lynn Fisher, MBA’s vice president of research and economics, said in a statement.
“A change in program offerings from a single large investor in the conventional space was responsible for much of the net decline. The decline in February returned the jumbo component index to levels just above year-end levels, and the conforming component index to levels just above last October. The government component index continued along the same modest downward trajectory that it has been on for nearly a year,” Fischer said in a statement.