Credit Card Credit Tightness Index (CFPB)

## What this measures

An index of the number of consumers with a credit card inquiry (a hard credit pull) who did not open a new card account afterwards, January 2010 = 100, seasonally adjusted.

## Why it matters

It is a direct measure of credit denials as consumers experience them: people who sought a card and came away without one.

## How to read it

Higher means more consumers turned away (or walking away). Read it with card originations (credit.cfpb_cct.card_originations) and the Fed’s Senior Loan Officer Survey on card standards.

## What it does not say

It counts consumers, not applications, and cannot tell a denial from a consumer who declined an offer. It moves with the number of people applying as well as with lenders’ standards.

## Source

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Credit Trends (consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-credit-trends), the all-data CSV (series "Credit Tightness Index", subgroup "all", loan type CRC, seasonally adjusted). 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.