Bailed-out banks lent less money in March

WASHINGTON — Banks that received taxpayer bailouts had a lower average level of loans outstanding as of the end of March than a month earlier, the Treasury Department reported Monday.

Five hundred of the more than 600 banks participating in the $700 billion financial system rescue had an average of $5.24 billion in loans oustanding on March 31, down 0.8 percent from the $5.28 billion average they showed at the end of February.

Commercial loans were down an average of 1.18 percent, while consumer loans were down an average of 0.48 percent. Commercial lending is considered a serious risk for the banks, after sharp declines in commercial real estate and consumer spending.

The dropoff in lending was more pronounced at the 21 largest banks to receive money from the Capital Purchase Program. Their lending declined 0.88 percent to an average of $4.38 billion for March from an average of $4.42 billion in February.

Commercial lending at large banks dropped 1.53 percent to $1.78 billion from $1.81 billion. Consumer lending was off 0.43 percent to $2.6 billion from $2.61 billion.

Treasury unveiled the program in October as one of the earliest efforts to unfreeze dormant credit markets.

Some of the larger participants needed the money to continue operating normally. But most of the the participants — including all of the smaller participants — are described as healthy.

It was the first time Treasury released the monthly report. Banks were asked to provide the data used in the survey. The data did not include numbers for individual banks.