Consumer Lending

The Quarterly Banking Profile is available at the FDIC’s web site.

The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to keep its target for the federal funds rate at 5-1/4 percent.

Economic growth slowed in the first part of this year and the adjustment in the housing sector is ongoing. Nevertheless, the economy seems likely to expand at a moderate pace over coming quarters.

Core inflation remains somewhat elevated. Although inflation pressures seem likely to moderate over time, the high level of resource utilization has the potential to sustain those pressures.

In these circumstances, the Committee’s predominant policy concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected. Future policy adjustments will depend on the evolution of the outlook for both inflation and economic growth, as implied by incoming information.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; Timothy F. Geithner, Vice Chairman; Thomas M. Hoenig; Donald L. Kohn; Randall S. Kroszner; Cathy E. Minehan; Frederic S. Mishkin; Michael H. Moskow; William Poole; and Kevin M. Warsh.

Federal Reserve

The Fed is expected to leave rates unchanged.

Background

Up a seasonally adjusted 3.6% from last week and 19.9% from the same week last year.

MBA Survey

Overall, outstanding consumer credit climbed by $13.5 billion in March, or at a 6.7% annual rate, the Fed said.

The number was much larger than expected. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch predicted, on average, that consumer credit would climb by $4.8 billion.

Nonrevolving credit, which includes automobile loans, rose by 5.2% annualized, or $6.7 billion. It follows a revised gain of $3.4 billion, or 2.7% annualized, in February.

Revolving credit like credit cards, meanwhile, climbed by $6.8 billion, or 9.2% annualized.

MarketWatch

Federal Reserve Consumer Credit release

Royal Bank of Scotland and its Spanish and Belgian partners are offering $24.5 billion for ABN Amro’s Chicago-based LaSalle Bank, provided they also purchase the rest of ABN, according to media reports out of Europe.

The group of RBS, Spain’s Santander and the Belgian-Dutch Fortis will propose an offer of about 39 euros per share for all of ABN, according to reports. That would value the total deal for the Dutch bank at about 72 billion euros, the biggest bank deal ever.

Bank of America on Friday sued ABN, seeking damages and a court injunction to block the sale of LaSalle to a rival bidder.

Reuters via CNNMoney

Bank of America Corp. sued Dutch bank ABN AMRO Friday over the No. 2 U.S. bank’s agreement to buy ABN’s U.S. unit, LaSalle, seeking an injunction barring the unit’s sale to any other party.

Bank of America also said in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, that ABN had been “unjustly enriched” by billions of dollars because of the premium that Bank of America agreed to pay in its $21 billion offer for LaSalle and sought unspecified money damages.

Reuters via CNNMoney

A Dutch judge on Thursday ordered ABN Amro to halt the sale of its LaSalle Bank unit to Bank of America in a decision that could block a related deal to sell the rest of the company to U.K. banking giant Barclays.

The judge, ruling on a suit filed by Dutch shareholder group VEB last weekend, said the sale of LaSalle would need to be voted on by shareholders. ABN Amro had argued that the sale was not subject to shareholder approval, because the business did not represent one-third of ABN Amro’s assets.

The ruling also improves the chances that a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland will buy the Dutch bank.

MarketWatch

Mortgage applications increased a seasonally adjusted 0.6% from last week. Mortgage applications were also up 9.4% from the same week last year.

Mortgage Bankers survey

MasterCard, which processes credit-card payments for merchants, said first-quarter earnings rose to $214.9 million, or $1.57 a share, from $126.7 million, or 94 cents a share a year earlier.

Analysts had on average expected $1.16 a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose 24 percent to $915 million during the quarter.

Reuters via CNNMoney

Stock is up 12%.