ATLANTA – There are signs of life in prime borrowers and that could bode well for lending growth improvement in 2012.
Myra Hart, SVP of analytical services for Equifax, offered that analysis during a recent Moody Analytics webinar on consumer credit. “There are some real signs that things are turning around. Since about February this year, 700-score consumers have been increasing their balances on discretionary loan products – bank card, retail card, auto loan, and consumer finance. It appears that prime consumer demand for credit is expanding now and that is a good sign for next year.”
But the demand is not spread equally across the U.S., said Hart. Equifax has seen more activity from prime borrowers – for bank card balances – in the upper East Coast, Texas, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. Prime borrowers appear to still be deleveraging in the sand states, New Mexico and parts of the Midwest, she said.
