WASHINGTON — Banks around the country have issued more than 3,000 small loans as part of a pilot program by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. exploring alternatives to payday lending.

Banking industry experts are calling it a significant first step to find a less-predatory way to provide short-term credit. Payday loans require borrowers to sign over their next paycheck in return for a cash advance of a few hundred dollars with an interest rate often exceeding 390 percent.

Since January, the FDIC has tracked lending programs at 31 small to mid-size banks throughout the United States, with the goal of figuring out how to make the loans profitable enough for more commercial banks to start marketing them.

"Our hope and our belief is that this can be done in a profitable way that works for even large institutions," said Andrew Stirling, who manages the program for the FDIC.

The loans, $2,500 or less, are issued under FDIC guidelines that cap their interest rates at 36 percent.

In the first quarter of 2008, the banks issued 3,140 loans, 1,535 of which were for less than $1,000. The average term was 10 months with a 15.05 annual percentage rate. The FDIC plans to announce its findings Thursday but previewed them to The Washington Post.

"It's suggesting that these are customers who have some kind of roots, some kind of stability, people who are demonstrating an ability to keep making payments," said Wayne Abernathy, executive vice president for financial institutions policy at the American Bankers Association.

That sort of stability is important, Abernathy said, because bankers tend to view the low-income customers who need these products as risky, unreliable investments.