ARLINGTON, Va.—Consumer credit growth continued to slow in April, increasing 2.9% during the month.
NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long pointed out that after reviewing the data there continues to be a "divergence between consumer sentiment surveys – which remain near historic highs – and households' willingness to take on additional debt."
Total consumer credit saw a monthly increase of 3.8% in March and 4.3% in February (all seasonally adjusted annual rates). From a year ago, total consumer credit was up 4.8%, Long said.
Non-revolving credit, which is mostly motor vehicle and education loans, rose 3% in April. Revolving credit, which is primarily credit cards, increased 2.7% during the month but is up just 0.4% on the year following several months of slow growth. "The revolving segment spiked in late 2017, but has been nearly flat in 2018," said Long in a NAFCU Macro Data Flash report. "The non-revolving segment has been slowing for several years as growth in auto sales has moderated."
Total consumer credit for credit unions increased 0.7% in April from the previous month, compared to a 0.5% increase for banks and 0.2% for financial companies. In the first quarter, total consumer credit at credit unions rose 3.4%, while banks and financial companies decreased 2.8% and 1.9%, respectively.
"Credit unions' portfolio of consumer credit was up 9.3% from last year," Long said. "Credit unions now own 11.4% of the market, which is up from 10.9% a year ago."
From a year ago, banks' market share edged up from 40.9% to 41.2% and financial companies' share fell from 14.7% to 13.8%, Long said.