CHICAGO -

According to TransUnion’s Q3 2016 Industry Insights Report powered by Prama analytics, total auto financing balances grew by 9 percent year-over-year during the third quarter.

TransUnion pegged the total balance reading at $1.1 trillion, up from $1.01 trillion in Q3 2015.

Analysts noticed subprime balances experienced the largest increase, with 11.4 percent year-over-year growth. Despite this increase, subprime balances accounted for just $172 million of the $1.1 trillion in total balances in Q3.

“Subprime balance growth outpaced overall growth in the auto loan sector in the third quarter, but subprime consumers’ share of balances has remained steady in the last few years,” said Jason Laky, senior vice president and automotive and consumer lending business leader for TransUnion.

“We’re observing increased delinquency rates, but this is a natural function of more non-prime consumers with an auto loan,” Laky continued.

“We hope that steady job growth and wage gains will enable delinquencies to continue at low rates and support continued auto sales growth, though potentially at a more moderate pace than in recent years,” he went on to say.

In the third quarter, 79.3 million consumers had some kind of auto financing, up 6.2 percent from 74.7 million in Q3 of last year. The average balance per consumer was $18,361, the highest level since Q3 2009.

One year prior, the average auto financing balance was $17,946.

The report also found that auto loan delinquency, for consumers 60 days or more past due, reached 1.33 percent in Q3 2016, up from 1.19 percent in the third quarter of 2015.

Auto originations, viewed one quarter in arrears, grew at the slowest annual pace since the Great Recession. Total originations were 7.27 million in Q2 of this year, up slightly from 7.24 million in Q2 of last year.

TransUnion indicated originations to non-prime consumers — individuals with a VantageScore 3.0 score of 660 and below — declined for the first time since Q3 2010.

“The second quarter of 2016 marked the first sign of a slowdown in non-prime originations, but the flat growth in total originations was in line with the expected plateauing of new-vehicle sales,” Laky said.

Editor's note: Watch for a future report from SubPrime Auto Finance News containing more details from TransUnion's latest auto finance analysis.