Delinquencies at Commercial Banks

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has released data on delinquencies on various types of consumer credit at insured commercial banks for the third quarter of 2001, classified by size of bank. We compare the current delinquency rates to those previously published in Spotlight on Finance for the first quarter of 2001.

In both quarters delinquencies on credit card loans were higher than those on loans to individuals, with the exception of the smallest banks in the first quarter and banks with $100 million up to $1 billion in the third quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the smallest banks had higher delinquency rates on loans to individuals than the larger banks, but by the end of the third quarter their delinquency rates were the lowest in the industry. In the six months from the end of the first quarter of 2001 to the end of the third quarter, delinquencies rose for almost every type of loan and size of bank. A significant exception was among banks with assets ranging from $100 million to $1 billion, where average delinquencies on credit card loans fell from 3.32 percent to 2.33 percent. A minor exception was among the smallest banks, where the percentage of delinquencies on loans to individuals was virtually unchanged.