While credit conditions are still expected to weaken compared to their strong position in the last few years, bank economists have come to view the situation with more optimism due to better economic growth.
Bank economists see both credit quality and credit availability weakening over the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2023 as consumers and businesses find it hard to keep up with the current market conditions.
Local banks continued to reduce the provision for loan losses in the first quarter in a sign that pandemic-related credit concerns continue to stabilize.
The chief economists of the continent’s largest banks say they believe conditions in the business and consumer credit markets will improve over the next six months.
For people on the country’s economic fringes, the proliferation of data analytics tools to monitor consumer life – driven by companies that profit from gathering personal data – will magnify today’s financial hardship.
A new analysis from investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods shows that small- and mid-cap stock banks in the Northeast had similar credit quality during the first quarter as other similarly-sized banks in the broader group that KBW analyzes.
Credit quality in Massachusetts ranked about average compared to the rest of the country.
