Credit unions in February held their largest share of the nation’s credit card debt ever as the nation’s credit debt remained near record levels, according to the Federal Reserve’s monthly Consumer Credit report released Friday.
Credit unions held $52.3 billion in credit card debt in February — 5.5% of the nation’s total.
Credit unions also held an all-time record of $337.3 billion in non-revolving loans in February, up 12.7% from a year earlier. For credit unions, about 90% of these loans are for new and used cars. The rest include private student loans, boat loans and other non-revolving consumer credit.
Banks held $687.0 billion in non-revolving consumer credit, up 6.2% from a year ago and down slightly from their all-time peak of $688.3 billion in January.
Credit unions held only 0.08% of credit card debt in January 1984, when the Federal Reserve first reported their share of revolving consumer debt. Since then, their share has risen glacially, but steadily. It reached 4.6% in February 2012 and was at 5.4% a year ago.
Banks have also gained share in the last five years. They held 84% of credit card debt in February, up from 78.6% in February 2012 and 83.6% a year ago. Finance companies and others have been losing share.
Credit unions’ revolving debt was up 8.3% from a year earlier, but down from its most recent historic peak of $53.1 billion in December 2016. Those figures are not seasonally adjusted, and credit card debt typically hits a holiday peak in December and trails off early the year.
Revised figures for December showed national credit card debt topped $1 trillion for the first time since the start of the Great Recession. In the Federal Reserve’s Consumer Credit report released in March, the December peak was $998.9 billion; its monthly report released Friday showed it has been revised upwards to $1,000.1 billion.
U.S. credit card debt has topped $1 trillion only twice before: It reached $1,001.6 billion in December 2007 and an all-time record of $1,004.0 billion in December 2008.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the nation’s revolving credit rose at a 3.5% annual rate in February.
