Delinquent Loan Rate Improves : Credit: A survey by American Bankers Assn. finds fewer consumers fell behind in payments late last year.

A rising economy and falling interest rates helped shrink the share of Americans who fell behind in their loan payments last year, a banking trade group said Wednesday.

A survey by the American Bankers Assn. found that, when seasonally adjusted, 2.43% of installment loans were at least 30 days overdue during the last three months of 1992.

That was down from 2.58% during the October-December period of 1991 and the third straight quarterly decline since the composite delinquency ratio reached 2.75% in the first quarter of last year.

It fell to 2.60% at the end of the second quarter and to 2.46% at the end of the third.

The composite ratio, based on eight types of closed-end loans at commercial banks, is seasonally adjusted.

The report also showed that delinquency rates for bank credit cards, which are not included in the composite ratio, decreased to a seasonally adjusted 2.93%, down from 3.14% in the third quarter and 3.29% at the end of 1991.

Home equity lines of credit, also excluded from the composite ratio, continued to post the lowest delinquency rate, 0.85%.

“Clearly, 1992 was a better year for the majority of households, although the economy bumped and rolled along,” said James Chessen, the association’s chief economist.

“These delinquency numbers suggest that consumers’ efforts to pay off excessive debt levels during the past two years are finally bearing fruit,” he added.

The delinquency rate is derived from a survey of 800 banks in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

It is a composite of rates for eight types of closed-end consumer loans.