The top 20 largest banks reported “a general trend of modestly declining total loan balances” in the fourth quarter, according to the first monthly bank lending summary issued Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury Department.

The monthly report is an initiative by the Department to increase transparency and address whether banks that have received Capital Purchase Program (CPP) funds are effectively lending that money. The 20 banks account for about 90 percent of total deposits in the U.S. banking system.

“Despite significant headwinds posed by unprecedented financial market crisis and economic turn, banks continued to originate, refinance and renew loans,” according to the 90-page report, which is available online.

From October to December, total residential mortgage balances across the 20 banks were essentially flat, with a median decrease in total residential mortgage balances of 1 percent, the report said. For the same period, corporate loan balances also decreased slightly, with a median 1 percent decrease. Ten of the 20 banks had increases in corporate loan balances, however. Credit card borrowing increased, while available credit decreased. The median percent change in total used and unused commitments for U.S. credit cards was essentially flat. In commercial real estate, renewals of existing accounts increased significantly, while new commitments decreased significantly.

Wells Fargo & Co., which received $25 billion in CPP funds, reported that it extended $22 billion in new loan commitments, $50 billion in new-home first mortgage originations and took $116 billion in new mortgage applications in the fourth quarter, up 40 percent from the third quarter. In total, the bank extended more than $75 billion in new credit in the quarter, according to the report.