What This Dashboard Tracks
The Credit Conditions Dashboard integrates public data series from the Federal Reserve and other regulatory sources to provide a comprehensive view of financial conditions across the credit spectrum — from investment-grade corporate bonds through leveraged loans and commercial real estate.
Core Data Series
National Financial Conditions Index (NFCI): Published weekly by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the NFCI is a broad measure of U.S. financial conditions across money markets, debt markets, and equity markets, as well as the traditional and "shadow" banking systems. Positive values indicate tighter-than-average conditions; negative values indicate looser-than-average conditions. The NFCI's credit sub-index (NFCICREDIT) isolates credit market conditions specifically.
Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS): The Federal Reserve's quarterly Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey reports bank lending standards and loan demand across C&I, commercial real estate, and consumer lending categories. Tightening standards are a leading indicator of credit contraction.
Investment-Grade and High-Yield Spread Indices: The Federal Reserve H.15 statistical release provides benchmark Treasury yields against which corporate bond spreads are measured.
Federal Reserve Beige Book: Qualitative assessments of economic and credit conditions across Federal Reserve Districts provide regional context that complements quantitative data series.
Why This Matters
No single data series captures credit conditions comprehensively. The Credit Conditions Dashboard combines the NFCI (broad financial conditions), SLOOS (bank lending behavior), and spread data (capital market pricing) into a multi-dimensional view that supports more informed credit analysis than any single indicator provides.
Sources: Federal Reserve Chicago NFCI; Federal Reserve SLOOS; Federal Reserve H.15; Federal Reserve Beige Book; OCC Semiannual Risk Perspective.