Fed SLOOS: Over Q3, banks reported that lending standards for commercial and industrial (C&I) loans to large and middle-market firms were basically unchanged, while standards tightened for C&I loans to small firms

• CRE: Banks reported having tightened, on net, lending standards for all commercial real estate (CRE) loan categories
• RRE: Banks reported having left standards basically unchanged, on net, over the third quarter for most types of residential mortgage loans except qualified mortgage (QM) jumbo and non-QM jumbo mortgages, for which banks reported having eased standards
• Consumer: Banks reported having left lending standards and most queried terms basically unchanged for credit card loans, auto loans, and other consumer loans

• Banks reported being more likely to approve credit card applications to super-prime and prime borrowers and less likely to approve applications to subprime borrowers, with small banks driving the trend for subprime borrowers.
• The likelihood of approving credit card applications remained basically unchanged for near-prime borrowers.
• As reasons for stronger demand for credit card loans over the past year, banks most frequently cited changes in customers’ spending needs in response to price changes for goods and services they face.

The SLOOS is one of the few surveys that reads directly on the credit impulse rather than on price, and its historical value has been as a leading indicator: sustained net tightening in bank standards has typically preceded a deceleration in loan growth and, with a longer lag, in hiring and capex, which is why the survey has tended to matter more for the growth narrative than for any immediate rates reaction. The split that stands out here is firm size: unchanged standards for large and middle-market borrowers alongside tightening for small firms is a familiar late-cycle pattern, since larger corporates retain capital markets access while small firms are bank-dependent, meaning the tightening bites where the substitution channel is weakest. Broad-based CRE tightening across all categories is consistent with how banks have behaved through prior episodes of elevated rates and softening collateral values, and the follow-ons there are delinquency and charge-off data and any renewed pressure in regional bank funding costs and equity, the cohort that carries the heaviest CRE concentration. The consumer detail, easier approval odds at the prime end and tighter at subprime with small banks driving it, fits the standard pattern of lenders rationing at the margin of credit quality rather than across the book, and historically the subprime tail is where stress shows first. The next tells are the demand side of the survey and whether subsequent editions show tightening broadening from the tails toward the core, which is the sequence that has marked genuine credit crunches rather than mere normalisation. The survey feeds directly into how the committee characterises financial conditions, so its framing in upcoming Fed commentary is worth noting.