TransUnion Report Shows Credit Risk Declining for Sixth Straight Quarter; Driven by Fewer Delinquent Consumers and Lower Debt Levels
TransUnion’s proprietary Credit Risk Index (CRI) declined for the sixth consecutive quarter as consumers continue to pay off their outstanding debt and maintain low delinquency levels on their credit obligations. Compared to one year ago, the 2Q2011 CRI for the U.S. decreased 1.9 percent to 121.22. The Credit Risk Index is benchmarked to 1998 consumer credit risk levels and measures changes in consumer credit risk within various market segments.
“The lengthy, broad and steady decline in the Credit Risk Index, which reflects declines in consumer delinquency and debt levels, has placed the consumer credit market on a firmer footing,” said Chet Wiermanski, global chief scientist at TransUnion. “This responsible use of credit has given some lenders confidence to ease lending standards and invest more in the acquisition of new credit customers.”
Source: TransUnion’s Trend Data Database The source of the underlying data used for this analysis is TransUnion’s Trend Data, a one-of-a-kind database consisting of 27 million anonymous consumer records randomly sampled every quarter from TransUnion’s national consumer credit database. Each record contains more than 200 credit variables that illustrate consumer credit usage and performance. Since 1992, TransUnion has been aggregating this information at the county, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), state and national levels. www.transunion.com/trenddata
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