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Market Intelligence
Canary in a Coal Mine?
In January, the 60-plus day delinquency rate on securities backed by subprime auto loans hit 6.9%, according to Fitch Ratings. That’s the highest level in recorded history and up sharply from a pandemic-era low of 2.58% in May 2021. Prior to this recent run, the record high was 5.96% in 1996. Reasons for the spike range from consumers’ pandemic-related savings running out to rising prices for everything, including cars. The average subprime borrower has a credit score 600 or below and paid $780 a month for a new car loan in the third quarter of 2025, up $40 from a…
When Government Policy Creates Uncertainty
The world is obsessed with metrics and measures. But is there a way to gauge the level of something as nebulous as uncertainty? The U.S. Economic Policy Uncertainty Index was introduced in 2010 as a way to measure, in relative terms, the uncertainty caused by government policy in five key areas: fiscal, monetary, national security, regulatory and trade. Lately, the EPU has been surging on the strength of war and tariff challenges, hitting 793.3 in early March. That’s nearly 800% above the baseline levels from 1985, and up close to 16-fold from the score of 51.1 registered in July 2024,…
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WRITTEN BY
John Engen
Contributing Writer
John Engen is a contributing writer for Bank Director. He has more than 30 years of experience as a business journalist, writing for a variety of newspapers and magazines, and was a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press. He graduated with a degree in economics and international relations from the University of Minnesota and did his post-graduate work in Asian studies at the University of Hawai’i.