Capital One’s latest quarterly results, released on Thursday (October 24) after the market close, stated that cardholders continue to use credit as an important payment method and consumers remain in “good shape,” according to the CEO.

The company’s income allowances are noted Card purchase volume increased 5% to $166 billion.

CFO Andrew Young said on the call: “Our credit outlook has improved slightly as our confidence in the stability of underlying credit trends has increased, resulting in modest releases and impairment charges.”

The company released reserves in the quarter and supplements noted that net reserves increased debit The interest rate was 5.6% last quarter, down from 6% in the second quarter, while increasing from 4.4% last year.

CEO Richard Fairbank said on the conference call that card loan balances increased 6% year-over-year above year, and the End of period Loans held for investment amounted to $149.4 billion. The 30+ The default rate at the end of the quarter was 4.5%, an increase of 0.22%.

“The pace of year after year increases both in the debit Interest rate and the default rate have had been declining steadily over several quarters and continued to shrink in the third quarter,” the CEO said.

Growth in auto loans

New auto loan originations increased 23% year over year third quarter, management said in the conference call, to $9.2 billion. The car debit The interest rate for the quarter was 2.1%, up 0.28%. The 30 days Fairbank said the delinquency rate fell somewhat, “primarily due to our decision to tighten lending and withdraw auto financing in 2022 (i.e.).” Debits were strong and stable.”

Regarding the Discover takeover, he said: “Wbefore We are working closely with regulators as our applications continue to function their way through the official approval process.

“Separately, Discover mentioned in its press release and on hers In last week’s earnings call, they announced that they continue to work in parallel with the SEC to resolve comments regarding their accounting approach to the card misclassification case. Once this process is complete, we expect to send out a joint proxy statement and schedule and most likely schedule a shareholder vote early next year.”

When asked by analysts on the call about the health of the U.S. consumer, Fairbank said, “The U.S. consumer remains a source of relative strength in the overall economy.” … The labor market remains strong … and the latest data points on unemployment and job creation have confirmed this Strictly speaking showed new strength. Incomes are rising in real terms. And last month we saw a significant upward revision in the savings rate.”

He added: “We are seeing some pressure points related to the cumulative impact of inflation and increased interest rates. … I would say consumer on the whole are in good condition compared to most historical benchmarks.”

He said later in the call that “at the card store…” our failures and Debits now correspond to normal seasonality.”

Shares of Capital One rose 3.4% in after-hours trading.