Proponents say the software makes things fairer and more objective for risky borrowers.

Goldman, for example, made loans as sweeteners to Russian companies that were considered by most commercial banks to be risky borrowers.

And credit spreads - the additional risk premiums that financial institutions demand from riskier borrowers - have narrowed as well.

"If the company has more bargaining power, bank managers might lose face so they continue to provide loans to risky borrowers."

"For the riskiest borrowers you take away a feature of a mortgage that is designed to force savings - why?"

"Meanwhile the riskiest borrowers are not being charged sufficiently high rates to cover their significantly higher risk of default."

Because poor countries are viewed as risky borrowers, commercial banks charge them a higher interest rate than is paid on Treasury bonds.

In many cases, the cutbacks in bank lending go beyond just eliminating risky borrowers.

The banks have judged that they could not earn enough interest from riskier borrowers to offset defaults by some of them.

The default rates vary from about 1.5% to 10% for the more risky borrowers.