U.S. banks are lending to businesses at such a rapid clip that those loans are on pace to overtake residential mortgages for the first time since the 1980s, the Wall Street Journal reported. Commercial and industrial loans rose 8.5 percent in the first quarter from the year-ago period and accounted for about 21 percent of outstanding loan balances at U.S. banks, the highest level in 13 years, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data released Wednesday. At the present rate of increase, business loans would overtake residential mortgages at banks for the first time since 1988, the data showed. In the first quarter, residential mortgage loans outstanding at U.S. banks increased 1.7 percent. Read about the first-quarter performance of Iowa banks here.