Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Primary dealers submitted $18 billion in bids for the Fed’s 14-day term repo operation, which matures Jan. 9. That was less than the $35 billion on offer and the third term operation aimed at year-end funding that has come in under the maximum amount.

Concerns over banks’ level of preparation have led to worries about disruptions in the lending market, and some financial institutions warn that a new interest rate benchmark could cause lenders to pull back on credit.

Mortgage debt climbed to a new peak of $9.4 trillion in the second quarter and the distribution across the U.S. varies greatly.

It’s no coincidence that with more than half of consumers ages 20 to 29 now holding credit cards — up from 41% in 2012 — 90-day delinquency rates are at a seven-year high, according to the New York Fed.

While student, auto and credit card balances are at or near record levels, housing debt is shrinking, credit quality is weakening a bit and lending standards, at least in some sectors, are tightening.

New research from the New York Fed found that banks with more than $50 billion of assets originate more subprime car loans than small banks and credit unions do.

An effort to increase awareness of the transition to a new benchmark rate, and nudge banks to start preparing, is expected to intensify in 2019.

The London interbank offered rate will likely be replaced by a new reference rate that critics say is better suited for the derivatives market than it is for commercial lending.

The success of the government-sponsored enterprises' credit risk transfer programs shows that they can be the basis for housing finance reform.

More stringent underwriting is the likely reason banks and credit unions are seeing relatively low levels of delinquencies on car loans to high-risk borrowers.