The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) suffered its largest decline in eight months in August. The Index fell 3.9 percent to 181.7, MBA says this indicates that credit is tightening. The MBA announcement comes on the heels of Fannie Mae's release of its third quarter Lenders' Sentiment Survey in which there was a substantial net increase in lenders responses that credit had tightened over the last three months and was expected to continue. All four of MBA's index components indicated a decline in credit access. The Conventional MCAI dropped 3.6 percent and the Government MCAI fell 4.1 percent. The two sub-components of the Conventional index, The Conforming and the Jumbo MCAI's were down by 4.3 and 3.2 percent respectively.