CHICAGO— A year after many banks were forced to tighten their lending requirements at the height of the pandemic—leading to a reduction in new card approvals—much has changed.
Credit card originations have nearly doubled to record levels, increasing from 8.6 million in Q2 2020 to 19.3 million in Q2 2021, according to TransUnion’s Q3 2021 Quarterly Credit Industry Insights Report (CIIR).
The report also found that the youngest generation of consumers, Gen Z, is driving the credit card rebound with the biggest jump in credit card originations, CNBC reported in its analysis.
“As many of these consumers come of age, they are finding they have a need for products such as credit cards,” says Paul Siegfried, SVP and credit card business leader at TransUnion. “Some of this growth is natural aging of the generation as more consumers enter it, but also too many of these consumers are engaging back in the economy and using credit products to do so.”