Volume growth in excess of 30 percent for both consumer loan applications and consumer loan approvals from February to March helped fuel additional growth in the latest Index of Banking Activity Composite Index. The Composite Index rose 6.7%, to a new high of 60.1 in March, up from 56.3 in February.
The component index that tracks the number of consumer loan applications rose 31.4 percent, and the commercial lending component index increased 31.5 percent in March, as compared to February. The component indexes that follow commercial loan applications and approvals also increased, by about 8 percent each. The index that tracks numbers of new consumer and commercial checking accounts rose roughly 6 percent over February levels, and the bank staffing-level index, which rises as institutions add headcount, increased 8 percent for the month.
Source: American Banker and VantageScore Solutions, LLC
Compiled from surveys of executives at hundreds of financial institutions across the United States, the index is an industry bellwether that tracks 16 distinct business indicators, such as volume of deposits, loan applications, and loan delinquencies, and how they change month over month. Measurements of each of these components are combined into a single Composite Index, in which readings above 50 indicate business expansion, and those below 50 signify contraction. Find more information about the Index and its component measurements at AmericanBanker.com.