Source: Shutterstock.
Credit unions lost ground to banks on credit cards, but gained share in other types of consumer loans in January, according to Fed data released Tuesday.
The Fed's G-19 Consumer Credit Report showed credit unions held $629.6 billion in consumer debt on Jan. 31, up 17.9% from a year earlier. That gave credit unions 13.2% of total consumer debt, up from 12.1% a year earlier and unchanged from December.
Banks held $2.01 trillion in consumer debt on Jan. 31, up 11.2% from a year earlier. Banks' share of total consumer credit was 42.1% in January, down from 42.5% in December and up from 40.8% in January 2022.
Those amounts included credit cards and other revolving debt.
Credit unions held $73.9 billion in credit card debt on Jan. 31, up 14.8% from a year earlier.
Balances typically decline early in the year after swelling in the holidays. However, the 2.2% drop from December to January at credit unions was much larger than the average December-to-January drop of 1.2% from 2016 through 2022.
The steeper drop wasn't enough to affect credit unions' share of credit cards. It stood at 6.3% on Jan. 31, unchanged from a year earlier and a month earlier.
Banks held $1.08 trillion in credit card debt on Jan. 31, up 16.9% from a year earlier. Banks' share of credit card debt was 91.1% in January, up from 91.0% in December and 90.5% in January 2022.
The other part of the total was personal loans, car loans and other consumer term loans, or non-revolving debt. Auto loans have been a main driver of credit union balance sheets in the past year, and reports from the Fed, CUNA and Experian have been showing strong gains in market share.
Credit unions held $555.7 billion in non-revolving debt on Jan. 31, up 18.3% from a year earlier. Credit unions' share of non-revolving loans was 15.4% in January, down slightly from 15.5% in December and up from 13.8% in January 2022.
Banks held $933.7 billion in non-revolving consumer debt on Jan. 31, up 5.3% from a year earlier. Banks' share of non-revolving loans was 26.0% in January, down slightly from 26.1% in December and unchanged from January 2022.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
