Beginning with the release in early July, the G.19 will no longer provide separate estimates for the automobile and "other" categories. Instead, these two categories will be combined into a single category called nonrevolving credit. This change is being made because we believe that the split between the two categories has become unreliable, owing to shifts in the composition of our monthly commercial bank panel and the lack of suitable benchmarks for the commercial bank automobile and "other" credit series. G.19 CONSUMER CREDIT For release at 3 p.m. (Eastern Time) 1 March 1999 May 7, 1999 Consumer credit growth slowed to a 1.4 percent annual rate in March, down from 8 percent in February. In March, automobile credit growth remained strong at a 10 percent rate, while the levels of both revolving and "other" credit turned down. CONSUMER CREDIT OUTSTANDING 1 Seasonally adjusted --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1998 1999 _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________ Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. r Mar. p --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Percent change at annual rate 2 Total 6.6 4.3 2.3 9.0 5.4 6.6 6.9 10.6 1.6 2.4 14.1 8.0 1.4 Automobile 8.8 4.1 4.0 8.2 8.0 12.1 8.1 6.1 12.6 12.4 19.0 13.2 9.9 Revolving 9.1 5.4 -1.4 9.2 -4.2 10.7 7.5 13.0 -2.4 8.6 13.2 5.1 -1.6 Other 3 -1.2 2.3 6.9 9.6 19.6 -8.9 4.2 12.7 -7.2 -24.1 8.2 5.6 -6.1 Amount: billions of dollars Total 1,247.3 1,251.8 1,254.2 1,263.5 1,269.2 1,276.2 1,283.6 1,294.9 1,296.6 1,299.2 1,314.5 1,323.2 1,324.8 Automobile 419.8 421.2 422.6 425.5 428.3 432.7 435.6 437.8 442.4 447.0 454.1 459.1 462.9 Revolving 539.4 541.8 541.2 545.3 543.4 548.3 551.7 557.6 556.5 560.5 566.7 569.1 568.3 Other 3 288.2 288.7 290.4 292.7 297.5 295.3 296.3 299.5 297.7 291.7 293.7 295.1 293.6 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TERMS OF CREDIT AT COMMERCIAL BANKS AND FINANCE COMPANIES 4 Percent except as noted: not seasonally adjusted --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Institution, terms, and type of loan --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commercial banks Interest rates 48-mo. new car n.a. n.a. 8.69 n.a. n.a. 8.71 n.a. n.a. 8.62 n.a. n.a. 8.34 n.a. 24-mo. personal n.a. n.a. 13.76 n.a. n.a. 13.45 n.a. n.a. 13.75 n.a. n.a. 13.41 n.a. Credit card plan All accounts n.a. n.a. 15.67 n.a. n.a. 15.83 n.a. n.a. 15.69 n.a. n.a. 15.41 n.a. Accounts assessed interest n.a. n.a. 15.62 n.a. n.a. 15.85 n.a. n.a. 15.54 n.a. n.a. 14.73 n.a. New car loans at auto finance companies Interest rates 6.47 6.20 6.07 6.02 6.23 6.00 5.92 6.33 6.79 6.43 6.22 6.43 6.31 Maturity (months) 51.5 50.7 50.8 50.9 51.7 53.0 53.1 53.1 52.8 52.2 52.1 53.4 53.0 Loan-to-value ratio 92 91 93 91 92 93 93 92 91 91 92 92 91 Amount financed (dollars) 18,932 18,922 18,793 18,878 19,084 19,068 19,028 19,199 19,590 19,734 19,628 19,304 19,339 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This release is issued around the fifth business day of each month. The exact date and time may be obtained by calling (202) 452 - 3206. Footnotes appear on reverse. 1 CONSUMER CREDIT OUTSTANDING (Billions of dollars) Not seasonally adjusted --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1998 1999 _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________ Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. r Mar. p --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 1,236.0 1,241.1 1,243.1 1,256.8 1,262.4 1,276.4 1,286.6 1,297.6 1,304.5 1,331.7 1,323.3 1,316.4 1,312.6 Major holders Commercial banks 492.1 500.1 497.3 491.4 491.4 498.2 497.9 502.1 498.8 508.9 507.3 497.8 487.6 Finance companies 156.5 154.3 153.6 154.3 156.1 159.6 159.1 165.6 166.6 168.5 167.3 169.7 168.9 Credit unions 150.7 151.1 152.2 152.4 153.5 153.6 154.3 155.0 155.2 155.4 155.7 155.2 155.0 Savings institutions 47.1 47.5 47.9 48.3 49.0 49.6 50.3 51.0 51.6 51.6 52.0 52.5 52.9 Nonfinancial business 72.7 65.1 65.2 65.3 65.5 66.0 65.5 66.0 66.6 74.9 71.0 68.0 67.1 Pools of securitized assets 5 316.8 323.1 326.9 345.1 346.9 349.4 359.4 358.0 365.6 372.4 370.0 373.3 381.0 Major types of credit 6 Automobile 415.5 416.0 418.2 425.2 429.9 435.4 439.6 443.1 446.6 451.0 452.2 454.0 458.1 Commercial banks 153.9 151.3 151.7 150.9 153.2 155.5 156.3 156.8 157.1 158.1 160.3 159.9 159.3 Finance companies 86.8 90.6 89.6 89.9 91.7 95.3 96.2 97.6 99.0 103.1 102.8 105.0 104.7 Pools of securitized assets 5 65.1 63.7 66.0 71.6 72.5 70.8 72.1 71.8 72.6 73.0 73.2 73.2 77.8 Revolving 534.1 535.6 535.6 539.6 537.2 545.1 549.0 556.0 559.2 586.5 575.7 569.1 562.8 Commercial banks 201.3 209.2 207.3 200.9 197.6 200.4 197.6 200.9 196.9 210.3 204.8 197.6 188.7 Finance companies 36.6 30.4 30.5 29.9 29.4 29.6 28.4 33.3 33.1 32.3 32.4 32.2 32.3 Nonfinancial business 41.2 33.5 33.4 33.5 33.8 34.0 33.7 33.8 33.8 39.2 36.4 34.3 33.7 Pools of securitized assets 5 226.2 233.7 235.3 245.6 246.6 251.2 259.3 258.1 265.3 272.3 269.9 272.4 275.4 Other 286.4 289.6 289.2 292.0 295.2 296.0 298.0 298.5 298.7 294.2 295.4 293.3 291.7 Commercial banks 136.9 139.7 138.3 139.6 140.6 142.2 144.0 144.4 144.8 140.5 142.2 140.2 139.6 Finance companies 33.0 33.4 33.5 34.4 35.0 34.7 34.6 34.6 34.6 33.1 32.1 32.5 32.0 Nonfinancial business 31.5 31.6 31.8 31.7 31.7 32.0 31.8 32.2 32.9 35.7 34.6 33.6 33.4 Pools of securitized assets 5 25.6 25.6 25.5 27.9 27.8 27.5 27.9 28.1 27.7 27.1 26.8 27.7 27.8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Covers most short- and intermediate-term credit extended to individuals, excluding loans secured by real estate. 2. Percent changes calculated from unrounded data. 3. Comprises mobile home loans and all other loans not included in automobile or revolving credit, such as loans for education, boats, trailers, or vacations. These loans may be secured or unsecured. 4. Interest rates are annual percentage rates (APR) as specified by the Federal Reserve's Regulation Z. Interest rates for new-car loans and personal loans at commercial banks are simple unweighted averages of each bank's most common rate charged during the first calendar week of the middle month of each quarter. For credit card accounts, the rate for all accounts is the stated APR averaged across all credit card accounts at all reporting banks. The rate for accounts assessed interest is the annualized ratio of total finance charges at all reporting banks to the total average daily balances against which the finance charges were assessed (excludes accounts for which no finance charges were assessed). Finance company data are from the subsidiaries of the three major U.S. automobile manufacturers and are volume-weighted averages covering all loans of each type purchased during the month. 5. Outstanding balances of pools upon which securities have been issued; these balances are no longer carried on the balance sheets of the loan originators. 6. Includes estimates for holders that do not separately report consumer credit holding by type. r=revised. p=preliminary.