Bank Fact of the Month

The $100 Bill gets a makeover.  The Federal Reserve Board announced that the newly restyled note will be released
on October 8th.  The new design is accompanied by new security features, such as a blue 3-D ribbon across the center of the bill, that will improve its resistance to counterfeiting. To read more and  see the new design click here.

Reports and Studies

Senior Loan Officer Survey 

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has released the second 2013 Senior Loan Officer Survey on Bank Lending Practices, based on responses from 68 domestic banks and 21 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks. Domestic banks have eased lending standards and report stronger loan demand across several categories. 

In response to three sets of special questions in the April survey, responding banks indicated the following:

• Lending standards for European bank loans are unchanged and a smaller share of domestic banks indicated increased demand due to reduced competition from European banks,
• Banks approving home purchase and GSE eligible applications to borrowers with credit scores between 680 and 720 are unchanged from a year ago, and
• Private student lending policies have not changed compared to last year for those lenders offering these loans.
  

In the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s study on household debt, the authors find households are actively reducing their obligations by paying down outstanding debt and taking on less new borrowing. These trends are positive for household balance sheets but may contribute to less consumption leading to important implications for consumption and economic growth in the future.

Read the study. 

ABA Mutual Bank Survey 

ABA Real Estate Survey

ABA released results of its 20th annual Real Estate Lending Survey revealing overall improvements for an industry that will tackle big challenges ahead.  The survey showed signs of sustainable housing recovery including a 2 percentage point increase in the portion of mortgage loans made to first time homebuyers from 2011 to 2012.  Commercial real estate loan demand is also trending higher but still constrained by the number of creditworthy projects.

Read the press release and survey report.

Banking Statistics

Fiscal Resources

Notables

Bills

• H.R. 807 - A bill to require that the Government prioritize all obligations on the debt held by the public in the event that the debt limit is reached.
• S.794 - A bill to prevent an increase in flight delays and cancellations, and for other purposes.
• S. 687 - A bill to prohibit the closing of air traffic control towers, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 1432 - A bill to amend the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013, to modify the amounts appropriated for the Federal Aviation Administration, and for other purposes.

Hearings  

• Joint Economic Committee

  May 22, 2013 at 10:00 am
  Hearing to examine the current economic outlook
• House Ways and Means Committee
  May 23, 2013 at 9:30 am
  Hearing on the President's and other bipartisan entitlement reform proposals

Approaching Deadlines  

• Late September - estimated timeframe when extraordinary measures are exhausted
• September 30 - When the current government funding bill ends.

Sequestration Resources and More

• White House FY 2014 Budget Proposal - $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years
• Congressional Budget Office Report: "Approaches for Scaling Back the Defense Department's Budget Plans"
• Pew analysis of sequestration impact on state budgets
• Pew map of Department of Defense percent of GDP
• Office of Management and Budget sequestration reports
• Office of Personal Management furlough information

Previous Fiscal Deadlines 

• Whenever the 12 appropriations bills are not passed prior to the start of the fiscal year, Congress often passes continuing resolutions or CRs to maintain government operations.  Since January 2012, Congress passed CRs on the following dates:

February 17, 2012
Continued funding the government through the remainder of FY 2012
September 28, 2012
Funded the government through the beginning of FY 2013 through the end of the 2012 calendar year
March 27th
Fiscal year 2013 continuing resolution expired and government would have shut down had H.R. 933 not passed the day before

• January 1, 2013
  Fiscal cliff was avoided through passage of American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 and pushed sequester trigger to March 1st, returned employee payroll tax rates to their historical level and increased some individual income tax rates.
• March 1, 2013
  Sequester or automatic federal spending cuts triggered
• March 26, 2013
  H.R. 933 signed into law, preventing government shutdown on March 27th
• April 15, 2103
  Each chamber must pass a budget for members to be paid on time (already happened)
• May 19, 2013
  Debt ceiling suspension expires, U.S. Treasury begins to use extraordinary measures

Last Updated: May 20, 2013 

Questions? Please contact CBI for more information.