Just Released: More Credit Cards, Higher Limits, and... an Uptick in Delinquency

Andrew Haughwout, Donghoon Lee, Joelle Scally and Wilbert van der Klaauw

No 20170815, Liberty Street Economics from Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Abstract: Today the New York Fed’s Center for Microeconomic Data released its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for the second quarter of 2017. Overall debt balances increased in the period, continuing their moderate growth since 2013. Nearly all types of balances grew, with mortgages and auto loans rising by $64 billion and $23 billion, respectively. Credit card balances increased by $20 billion, recovering from the typical seasonal first-quarter decline. The overall balance surpassed its previous peak in the first quarter. We wrote here about how the new peak poses little concern in and of itself—after all, the debt’s composition and characteristics are now very different than in 2008. There are, however, aspects of the household balance sheet that warrant close monitoring. For example, last year, we pointed out that there had been a moderate rise in the number of credit cards issued to nonprime borrowers. Separately, last quarter we noted an uptick in delinquency transitions for credit card balances, and we observed another climb in this quarter. So here, we further investigate how credit card balances, accounts, and delinquencies have evolved over the past year.

Keywords: household finances; credit cards; consumer credit panel; CCP; credit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08-15
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