Report
Q1 2025 Credit Industry Insights
Canadian Consumer Debt Continues to Grow Despite Macroeconomic Relief
Q1 2025 Report highlights include:
- New-to-credit Canadians led to greater credit participation, accounting for $2.6 billion in new credit balances in Q1 2025
- Subprime consumers are almost twice as likely to go delinquent within 12 months of opening new credit cards, compared to their pre-pandemic cohorts
- Growing concerns around Canadian consumers experiencing economic strain
Growth was fuelled by increased borrowing from young Canadians and newcomers. Consumer balances for non-mortgage products rose across most products, driven primarily by below prime consumers. Subprime consumers continued to struggle as their delinquency rates rose at significantly higher rates than prime and above consumers. Regional differences in cost of living and economic conditions also led to varying delinquency trends across provinces.
90+ Day Delinquency Rate YoY Changes for All Product Loans*
*Measured in basis points.
Average Consumer Balance, by Product*
*Represents the average balance held by a consumer across each type of product (consumers can have multiple instances of same product).
“The rise in balances from higher-risk and more vulnerable credit consumers signals a critical moment for lenders to reassess risk strategies and engagement models. Proactive credit monitoring, tailored financial support and early intervention tools can mitigate potential delinquencies while still maintaining consumer access to credit. At the same time, consumers should continue to build financial resilience by understanding their credit profiles, seeking guidance when needed and using credit responsibly. Empowered, informed borrowers are key to a healthier credit ecosystem.”
- Matthew Fabian, director of financial services research and consulting at TransUnion Canada
About the TransUnion CIIR Report
TransUnion Canada’s quarterly Credit Industry Insights Report provides in-depth, statistical information drawn from its national consumer credit database (of more than 30 million files profiling nearly every credit-active consumer in Canada). It summarizes data and trends for the national population overall, as well as breakdowns within consumer credit score risk tiers, and provides insights on the Canadian consumer lending industry. By leveraging the Industry Insights Report, institutions across industries can analyze market dynamics throughout an entire business cycle, helping understand consumer behaviour over time. It provides account-level and consumer-level views of key metrics and trends — over the nine most recent quarters — and considers major consumer lending categories: credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, home loans, and lines of credit while also looking at aggregate views of all revolving lines of credit and non-revolving loans.
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