Profits and Balance Sheet Developments at U.S. Commercial Banks in 2006
Figure 26. Credit card delinquency rate and household bankruptcy filings, 1993-2006. Data plotted as curves. The rate of credit card delinquencies begins in 1993 at about 4.6 percent, drops to about 3.2 percent in mid-1994, rises to about 4.7 percent by early 1997 and generally stays in the range of 4.5 percent to 5 percent through mid-2003, falls on balance to about 3.5 percent at the end of 2005, and then rises on balance to around 4 percent by year-end 2006. The number of bankruptcy filings per 100,000 persons starts in 1995 at about 300, generally rises to about 500 by early 1998, generally falls to about 400 by late 1999, generally rises to about 520 by early 2001 and stays at around that level through early 2005, spikes to around 900 at year-end 2005, and then drops into a range of around 150 to 200 in 2006.
NOTE: The data are quarterly and seasonally adjusted. The series shown for bankruptcy filings begins in 1995:Q1. For definition of delinquencies, refer to the note for figure 23 .
SOURCE: For bankruptcy filings, staff calculations based on data from Lundquist Consulting.