President-elect Barack Obama has not asked President Bush to release the remaining $350 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program funds and he will not act unless Obama wants him to, Bush said Monday in his farewell news conference.

“I have talked to the president-elect about this subject,” the President said. “I told him if he needed the $350 billion on my watch, I’d be willing to ask for it.. if he felt like it needed to happen on my watch.”

“He hasn’t asked me to make the request yet, and I don’t intend to make a request unless he specifically asks me to make it,” Bush added.

Obama may still ask Bush to release the funds, allowing them to be available a few days into the new administration, which begins January 20. Yet, requests from either president are likely to be met with some resistance and certainly many preconditions by Congress.

Congressional members of both parties have been disappointed with the Treasury’s use of the first half of the TARP funds, which have mainly been used to buy up mortgage-backed securities from Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Ginnie Mae in order to promote greater mortgage lending. The investments were made with almost no strings attached and many fear that there will be little accountability for the use of the taxpayer money.

Others on the hill are upset because they hoped to see the money used more directly for saving homeowners from foreclosure. There is talk that Obama may be required to write a letter of assurance about his intentions for the remaining money before Congress will release it.

“The best course of action, of course, is to convince enough members of the Senate to vote positively for the request,” Bush said of the Congressional discontent on the matter.

President Bush did, however, state that he was pleased overall with the way the first $350 billion was spent, saying that mortgage rates had dropped and lenders have felt the effect of greater liquidity.

“Credit spreads are beginning to shrink, lending is just beginning to pick up,” he said. “The actions we have taken, I believe, have helped thaw the credit markets, which is the first step toward recovery.”

In its latest quarterly senior loan officers survey, the Federal Reserve reported that banks in record numbers are holding borrowers to much stricter standards because of the slowing economy.

“In the current survey, large net fractions of domestic institutions reported having continued to tighten their lending standards and terms on all major loan categories over the previous three months,” the Fed said Monday.

The survey, which included 55 domestic and 21 foreign  banks, found that:

• 85 percent of banks had tightened credit standards for commercial and industrial loans made to large or mid-size companies. Only 60 percent had done so during the previous quarter.
• 87 percent of surveyed banks reported requiring stricter requirements for commercial real estate mortgages. At the same time, 77 percent of banks reported the demand for these loans had dramatically decreased.
• 71 percent of banks had tightened their lending standards on residential prime loans, and 89 percent of banks made it more difficult to qualify for “nontraditional” home loans. Few respondents of the survey were still offering subprime loans, but those that did had all continued to require more of their poor credit applicants.
• 78 percent of banks restricted approval for home equity lines of credit and 59 percent upped their standards for approving new credit card requests.
• 20 percent of respondents reduced lines of credit for prime borrowers while 60 percent reduced them for their less credit worthy customers.

The dramatic choke hold on commercial and residential financing is due in large part to losses and fears that banks have experienced as the global economy has withered during in the past two years.

“Roughly 75 percent of foreign respondents and about 40 percent of domestic respondents noted that a deterioration in their bank’s current or expected capital position had contributed to the move toward more stringent lending policies over the past three months,” the Fed concluded.

It added, “ Almost all domestic and foreign respondents pointed to a less favorable or more uncertain economic outlook as a reason for tightening their lending standards.”