Monthly estimates of total bank credit and its major components,
seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted, have been extended
back from January 1973, the former start date for all the bank credit
series, to January 1947. The components that have been extended are
holdings of U.S. government securities, holdings of other securities,
and the following loan categories: commercial and industrial, real
estate, consumer, security, and "all other."
Data in the H.8 are for all commercial banks in the United States,
which consist of domestically chartered banks and foreign-related
institutions (mainly U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks). The
data for 1973 through 1987 report totals for all institutions as well
as subtotals for domestically chartered banks and for foreign-related
institutions; beginning in 1988, the data are further disaggregated
between large and small domestically chartered banks. The extended data
(1947-72) show only all-institution totals.
As with the current data, the extended monthly data are prorated
averages of Wednesday values. The weekly Wednesday data underlying the
monthly averages mix actual historical observations with estimates that
are based on linear interpolations of semimonthly, monthly, and, in a
few cases, lower-frequency observations.
Several bank credit series received generally minor revisions for
the 1973-87 period when the longer time series were introduced.
