Business Loan Charge-Off Rate (Banks)

## What this measures

Commercial and industrial (C&I) loans U.S. commercial banks wrote off in the quarter, net of recoveries, as an annualized percent of average C&I loans outstanding. Seasonally adjusted.

## Why it matters

C&I loans fund working capital and investment at businesses of every size. Rising charge-offs mean companies are failing to repay banks, a direct read of business credit stress outside the bond market.

## How to read it

Higher is worse. Read it with the business loan delinquency rate (fred_drblacbs) and with corporate bankruptcy filings.

## What it does not say

Commercial banks only: no savings institutions, credit unions, finance companies or private credit funds. A charge-off is the bank’s decision to write a loan off, so its timing lags the borrower’s trouble and differs from bank to bank. Seasonally adjusted, annualized, and revised. Commercial real estate loans are a separate series (fred_corcrexfacbs).

## Source

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Charge-Off and Delinquency Rates on Loans and Leases at Commercial Banks (FRED series CORBLACBS). Palanor pulls it from the FRED API (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) nightly. Federal Reserve Board data are in the public domain.