Or, more plausibly, they were generalizing erroneously from the bad experience of a limited number of big banks and companies that are in any case in difficulty.
"I don't think they're fabricating stuff but what I think they are doing is taking the situation of a handful of institutions and generalizing that to the market as a whole, incorrectly," said Marenzi.
The picture appeared to be broadly similar in much of Europe and Japan, said the report, based on publicly available data on trends in bank lending to industry, households and among banks themselves in the so-called interbank markets.
ALL A MYTH?
Regarding U.S. business access to credit, the report says:
*Overall U.S. bank lending is at its highest level ever and has grown during the current financial crisies.
*U.S. commercial bank lending is at record highs and growing particularly fast since May 2007.
*Corporate bond issuance has declined but increased commercial lending has compensated for this.
