NEW YORK — The latest S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices highlighted the continued improving performance of auto loans.

Standard & Poor's and Experian based their analysis on data through April of this year and found defaulting balances on vehicle loans slid down to 1.9 percent. The figure represents a 17.5-percent decline from the previous month. Officials indicated the March percentage stood at 2.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the April 2010 percentage also represents a healthy decline from the year-ago mark. The companies reported a drop of 15.3 percent in monthly auto loan default rates since April of last year.

The performance of vehicle contracts aided improvement of the index composite reading. Officials noted it stood at 3.85 percent as of this past April. It showed a 6-percent decline since March of this year and a strong 27-percent drop from April of 2009.

Along with positive trends for auto loans, Standard & Poor's and Experian spotted reductions in defaults for both first and second mortgages, too.

The percentage connected with first mortgages dipped 6.2 percent from March to April and 31.1 percent from the year-ago mark. Officials pinpointed the rate at 3.71 percent.

The declines connected with second mortgages were even greater. From March to April, the drop was 11 percent, and the year-over-year decline was 45.4 percent. Officials tabulated the rate at 2.49 percent.

"Consumer defaults continue to moderate in the key big ticket items of first and second mortgages and auto loans," stated David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices

"In these areas, defaults bottomed out around the same time as the stock market in the first half of 2009," Blitzer continued.

The index segment where officials pointed out rises in default balances was associated with bank card loans. They explained bank card defaults climbed to 9.14 percent in April. This represented a 2.4-percent increase over March and a 19.3-percent jump since April 2009.

"Bank cards, on the other hand, continue to worsen and are at levels not seen in the history of these indices," Blitzer pointed out.

"With attention focused on consumer spending and little hope for a fast rebound in housing, the bank card series may raise concerns for many consumer-related businesses as well as for consumer-oriented lending institutions," he added.

Moving on to a discussion about defaults by region, officials mentioned that consumer credit defaults vary across major cities and regions of the United States.

Among the five major metropolitan statistical areas analyzed each month, officials noted Chicago showed the smallest decrease. That decline came in at 5.8 percent during the past year.

They went on to reveal the sharpest decline was in Miami. Defaults in the Florida hub dropped 40.5 percent in the last 12 months and 7.9 percent since March.

Among the other three specific cities mentioned, Los Angeles had nearly the same year-over-year percentage change as Miami, a drop of 37.8 percent down to 5.14 percent. Dallas and New York also had double-digit decreases on a year-over-year comparison.

For Dallas, it was a 14.7-percent decline to the lowest index level among these metro areas at 2.71 percent. For New York, it was a 12.1-percent drop down to 4.13 percent.

"Regional variations in default rates are typical," Blitzer explained. "The sharp declines in Los Angeles and Miami reflect a somewhat more stable, though still weak, housing market as well as some overall economic improvements seen in recent months."

Officials reiterated that this report is jointly developed by Standard & Poor's and Experian. They explained the indices are intended to construct an accurate track of experiences of consumer balances in four key loan categories. They're based on data extracted from Experian's consumer credit database of approximately $11 trillion in outstanding loans sourced from 11,500 lenders.