Consumer Lending on the Skids for Banks, CUs, Fed Report Reveals

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%.

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.