Fear and lending in New York: With regulators on their backs, banks get too timid

From the April issue: Much like the high-powered executives who race to get to the Hamptons in two hours on a summer Friday, commercial lenders disregarded regulators’ meek enforcement of lending speed limits during the boom.

Today, though, federal bank examiners are acting like traffic cops posted at every exit on the Long Island Expressway, forcing lenders to slow down. While commercial real estate lending has increased in New York over the past year, banks still have federal regulators breathing down their necks. And, according to observers, financial institutions are wary because regulators can demand action if they think something is amiss. [more]