Veda Advantage said it recorded a fourth consecutive monthly decline in enquiries by lenders of its records in relation to consumer loans in Australia.Enquiry levels through Veda, a proxy for demand for new credit, fell by 15 per cent in January 2009 the firm said in a media release yesterday. Enquiry levels fell six per cent in October, 14 per cent in November and seven per cent in December. Veda is the largest vendor of pooled data on consumer credit to lenders.The picture of a heavy fall on consumer credit demand in the Veda data may not be all that consistent with RBA and ABS data.The Reserve Bank financial aggregates show a slight decline in the overall level of consumer credit reported by the Reserve Bank of Australia, though the RBA series includes margin lending as well (and which is in sharp decline). Monthly data on lending finance from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows a steady but only mild decline in new levels of lending for personal credit, and down by only 10 per cent of so on a flow basis over the last year.In the home lending sector Veda said enquiries by major banks in relation to home loans increased by 8.6 per cent in the four months from October 2008 to January 2009. Amongst all financial institutions enquiries for mortgage applications fell by 6.4 per cent.