U.S. bank credit is growing at the fastest pace in three years, giving the Federal Reserve confidence in the economic expansion’s staying power, Bloomberg reported. Financial institutions increased commercial and industrial loans by an average annual pace of almost 10 percent in the third quarter, the highest since the comparable quarter in 2008, compared with a 1.7 percent decline in the past four years, according to Federal Reserve data. The latest numbers show loan growth of 15 percent, seasonally adjusted, in October and 6.1 percent in November. The resumption in lending means a projected fourth-quarter pickup in gross domestic product might be sustained next year even amid Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis, said Robert McTeer, former Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas president. He predicted that the central bank’s policy group probably won’t approve new monetary easing at its meeting on Tuesday.