Report
Q2 2026 Credit Industry Insights
Canadian Consumer Debt Reaches Record $2.64 Trillion as Financial Realities Differ Across Households
Q2 2026 Report highlights include:
- Growth in new mortgages slowed significantly as affordability pressures persisted
- More Canadians fell seriously behind on payments year-over-year, with stress concentrated in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario
- Consumer insolvency rates rose, driven primarily by non-mortgage holders
Canadian consumer debt hit a record $2.64 trillion in the second quarter of 2026 as debt levels grew faster than the number of Canadians using credit, as existing borrowers carried larger balances than a year earlier. Total outstanding balances grew $116.7 billion (+4.6%) year-over-year (YoY), while the number of Canadians with access to credit expanded more modestly to 32.5 million, a 1.1% YoY increase.
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).
“Credit growth in the second quarter reflected a widening divide across risk tiers. Super prime, prime plus and prime consumers continued to increase non-mortgage borrowing, while subprime consumers modestly reduced balances year over year, pointing to a more cautious borrowing environment among higher-risk households. For lenders, this polarization calls for differentiated strategies: prudent expansion in lower-risk segments and close monitoring of subprime performance.”
- 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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