Two men standing on a stack of coins Credit/Shutterstock

Banks and credit unions in August made their smallest 12-month gain in credit card balances since late 2021, when they were starting to climb out of the pandemic-era slump, according to a monthly report from the Fed.

The Fed's G-19 Consumer Credit Report released Monday also showed 12-month declines at banks and credit unions for loans for automobiles, personal loans and other non-revolving loans.

Non-revolving loan balances have shown 12-month declines since April at credit unions and since July 2023 at banks. Credit unions and banks were last in negative territory in late 2011.

July-to-August gains at credit unions and banks for both categories of consumer loans were also far below the 10-year average gains for those months from 2014 through 2023.

The Fed provides no break-down of the make-up of non-revolving consumer loans, but auto loans are major factor for credit unions and auto lending has been suffering. NCUA data from Callahan's Peer Suite showed credit unions held $494.9 billion in new and used auto loans as of June 30, or 75% of consumer term loans and auto leases.

The G-19 report showed:

  • Credit unions held $83.9 billion in credit card debt, up 5.9% from a year earlier and up 0.91% from July to August, compared with the 10-year average July-to-August gain of 1.1%. Credit unions' share of credit card debt was 6.3% in August, unchanged from a year earlier and July.
  • Banks held $1.2 trillion in credit card debt, up 5.9% from a year earlier and up 0.54% from July, compared with the 10-year average August gain of 1.1%. Banks' share was 90.8% in August, up from 90.5% a year earlier and unchanged from July.
  • Finance companies held $19 billion in credit card debt, down 7.8% from a year earlier and down 0.1% from July, compared with the 10-year average August drop of 0.9%.
  • Credit unions held $575 billion in non-revolving consumer loans in August, down 0.9% from a year earlier and up 0.2% from July, compared with the 10-year average gain of 0.9%.
  • Banks held $897.6 billion in non-revolving consumer debt, down 3.1% from a year earlier and up 0.3% from July, compared with the 10-year average gain of 0.7%.

Line graph showing credit card growh has slowed for both credit unions and banks

Among credit unions whose cards are managed by Velera, the nation's largest payments CUSO, total balances in August were 4.2% higher than a year earlier. The average credit card account balance was $2,940, up 3% or $88 from a year earlier.

The delinquency rate for Velera-managed credit cards was 2.47% in August, up 36 basis points from a year earlier, but down 6 bps from July.

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Jim DuPlessis

A journalist for decades.