Data through August 2010, released today by Standard & Poor's and Experian for the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices, a comprehensive measure of changes in consumer credit defaults, show the monthly default rates declined for second mortgages to 2.4% after last months rise to 2.8%. First mortgage and bank card loans declined from July to 3.2% and 7.9% respectively. Auto loans increased for the second month in a row from 1.96% in July to 2.05% in August.

"Except for auto loans, the consumer credit default indices show declining default rates. First and second mortgages show downward trends dating from May, 2009 while bank cards have seen diminishing default rates since April, 2010. In contrast, auto loan default rates have now risen for two months in a row but remain below the levels seen at the start of the year," says David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of S&P's Index Committee. "The improvements seen in most consumer credit categories echo other consumer credit trends which show declines in consumer debt levels following the 2007-2009 financial crisis for most types of loans."

Consumer credit defaults vary across major cities and regions of the U.S. Among the five major Metropolitan Statistical Areas reported each month in this release, Los Angeles had the largest decrease in defaults in the last month by 11.8%, closely followed by New York which declined by 9.01%. Dallas was the only one of the five to experience an increase by 3.43%. Miami continues to decline by 35.59% in the last 12 months.