WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Continued economic uncertainty caused a majority of U.S. and foreign banks to tighten lending standards to businesses and households over the last three months, though the percentage of banks tightening is not quite as high as it was in October, the Federal Reserve said on Monday.
"The net fractions of respondents that reported having tightened their lending policies on all major loan categories over the previous three months stayed very elevated," the central bank said in its January senior loan officers report, a closely watched quarterly survey of lending conditions.
"Relative to the October survey, these net fractions generally edged down slightly or remained unchanged," the Fed said, adding that demand for loans from both businesses and households continued to weaken.
About 65 percent of domestic banks tightened standards on commercial and industrial loans to large and middle-market firms since October, compared to an 85 percent response rate in October. That's still above the previous peaks reported in 1990 and 2001. (Reporting by Corbett B. Daly; Editing by Neil Stempleman)