Banks boost lending

A slowly warming economy has banks lending again


The tide has turned, USA Today recently reported, and banks are lending again.

After three years of Scrooge-like underwriting following 2008's financial crisis, banks have turned on the spigot, boosting lending at annual rates as high as 8.2 percent since July, according to Federal Reserve statistics.

Lending had fallen from mid-2008 through this year's second quarter, deepening what became the worst recession since the Great Depression. The data seem to allay fears that making banks keep more capital on their books as a cushion against future downturns and loan losses will take away the cash flow businesses need to keep the recovery moving.

Read the full story here.