Big firms that finance securities and derivatives dealers grew more wary about terms they were offering over the summer after easing terms for a lengthy period, a Federal Reserve study on Tuesday showed.
"Responses to the September survey pointed to small changes in credit terms across major classes of counterparties with no clear overall bias toward either easing or tightening over the past three months, in contrast with the broad-based easing that had been since...June 2010," the Fed survey said.
The so-called Senior Credit Officer Opinion Survey was conducted in late August and at the beginning of September but asked about changes between June and August -- a period of considerable strain in markets when worry about Europe's debt crisis was sapping stock prices.
It covered 21 firms that handle nearly all the dealer financing of dollar-denominated securities and that are the most active intermediaries in over-the-counter derivatives markets.
"Dealers indicated that their clients' willingness to bear risk had decreased somewhat, on net, over the past three months," the survey said, adding that hedge funds had displayed "a more pronounced decline" since the start of 2011 in their risk appetite than had other client types.
The survey said that "a significant majority" of dealers said they now were devoting more resources and attention toward managing concentrated exposures to dealers and other financial intermediaries in recent months.
It also said that there had been some tightening in terms under which a broad spectrum of securities were financed in recent months, though terms on equities financing were little changed.
"These responses stood in contrast with prior surveys in which responses had generally indicated an easing of terms," the survey said,. adding the tightening of terms appeared to apply to both average and most-favored clients.
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