The ABA has suspended publication of its weekly updates on new levels of lending and loan deferrals.
The update normally published on a Friday failed to materialise last week and still hasn't been published.
"It'll be a few weeks until we get a new set," Rory Grant, media relations director at the ABA told Banking Day yesterday.
What gives? There was no clarification from the ABA, encouraging cynics to wonder what story the data might tell.
On Friday, RBA governor Philip Lowe voiced concerns about a credit crunch, and one may well and truly be unfolding.
"We're seeing two competing stories emerge," a candid Innes Willox, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group told the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 late last week.
"We're hearing from banks - and we have a good relationship with the Bankers' Association - that credit lines aren't being taken up by business.
"And we hear back from business that banks and lending institutions are being particularly tough on business, to keep them going."
New lending flows via the SME guarantee scheme look to be negligible.
An overview supplied by Commonwealth Bank for the Senate Covid committee stated the bank "approved 7633 SME guarantee scheme applications totalling more than $670 million."
And here's the rub.
"Approximately 51 per cent of all loans approved through the SME guarantee scheme have been approved by CBA, based on ABA data."
On APRA data, bank lending to business fell by $8.3 billion to $774 billion, though this total is up by $24 billion over February.