During economic recoveries, bank credit officers would become more optimistic and willing to lend, an attitude that only strengthened during booms; in such times the voices of risk managers, even supervisors, calling for caution were likely to carry less weight.
During recessions, with losses clear and write-offs rising, caution would come to the forefront, and more-restrictive attitudes toward lending would be reinforced by the arguments of risk managers and supervisors who could point to the losses. One can, I think, begin to notice a change in recent years in this typical pro-cyclical behavior in bank credit availability in the United States.