PPP Lending Dominates Commercial Loan Growth in March

Free content from Automated Financial Systems, Inc. -- AFS

Total commercial loan balances continued to expand in March on the strength of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lending. Excluding this loan type, C&I bilateral loan balances increased slightly this month, with growth limited to a handful of large industries such as Finance & Insurance. After spiking at the onset of the pandemic last March, commercial line of credit utilization trended downwards and has remained below the pre-pandemic level. Average pricing for floating-rate new and renewed C&I bilateral loans ticked up in March, reversing the trend of declining interest rates seen over the last several months.