Subprime Share of New Credit Cards (CFPB)

## What this measures

Credit cards originated to consumers with a FICO Score 8 below 620 in the previous quarter (the CFPB’s deep subprime and subprime tiers) as a percent of cards originated to consumers in all five score tiers, each month.

## Why it matters

It is a direct read of how far down the credit spectrum card lenders are reaching. Lenders cut subprime card lending hard in 2008–2009. In 2020 the share rose, because card lending to prime borrowers fell further.

## How to read it

Higher means more lending to the riskiest borrowers. Card delinquency (fred_cc_delinquency) tends to rise a year or two after a stretch of loose lending.

## What it does not say

Computed from unadjusted counts in the five score tiers; consumers without a score are left out. Scores are measured in the quarter before origination. One credit bureau’s data.

## How it's built

(Deep Subprime + Subprime) ÷ (sum of the five score tiers), unadjusted originations, times one hundred.

## Source

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Credit Trends (consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-credit-trends), the all-data CSV (series "Originations", subgroup "score", loan type CRC, unadjusted). The CFPB builds it from a nationally representative sample of de-identified credit records from one of the three nationwide consumer reporting agencies. The CCT page: "The data and analyses presented herein are the sole product of the CFPB"; the CFPB's legal notice: "Information created by the CFPB is in the public domain and you may reproduce, publish, or otherwise use it without the Bureau's permission." Source: CFPB, Consumer Credit Trends. Refreshed weekly by /api/cron/credit-consumer-sync, which re-reads the full CSV.