CFPB data show $7.17 billion in new student loans to borrowers with deep subprime credit scores in February 2026, seasonally adjusted, against $0.95 billion in February 2025. The CFPB says the most recent six months of its data are not final.
The rise is not gradual. Deep subprime volume was between $0.9 billion and $1.9 billion a month from February through September 2025. It was $7.34 billion in October 2025, $29.03 billion in November and $29.89 billion in December, then $7.54 billion in January 2026. No other score tier shows a jump of that size in the same months. The CFPB file does not explain the change, and we have not found an explanation we can confirm. Readers citing these figures should check them against the next CFPB release, since the months from October 2025 on are among those not yet final.
New student loan volume by credit score tier
| Month | Deep subprime | Subprime | Near-prime | Prime | Super-prime | All tiers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2025 | $0.95B | $0.90B | $1.23B | $2.49B | $4.23B | $9.80B |
| Mar 2025 | $1.04B | $0.90B | $1.24B | $2.25B | $4.02B | $9.45B |
| Apr 2025 | $1.06B | $0.87B | $1.17B | $2.28B | $3.80B | $9.18B |
| May 2025 | $1.91B | $1.21B | $1.33B | $2.79B | $4.35B | $11.59B |
| Jun 2025 | $1.55B | $1.26B | $1.41B | $2.49B | $4.23B | $10.94B |
| Jul 2025 | $1.61B | $1.22B | $1.64B | $2.76B | $4.81B | $12.04B |
| Aug 2025 | $1.68B | $1.09B | $1.41B | $2.93B | $5.39B | $12.49B |
| Sep 2025 * | $1.53B | $1.10B | $1.53B | $2.91B | $5.01B | $12.07B |
| Oct 2025 * | $7.34B | $1.49B | $1.49B | $2.85B | $4.87B | $18.04B |
| Nov 2025 * | $29.03B | $3.47B | $1.98B | $2.72B | $4.72B | $41.92B |
| Dec 2025 * | $29.89B | $3.97B | $1.94B | $2.61B | $4.71B | $43.12B |
| Jan 2026 * | $7.54B | $1.77B | $1.55B | $2.85B | $5.18B | $18.88B |
| Feb 2026 * | $7.17B | $1.88B | $1.55B | $2.94B | $5.29B | $18.82B |
Seasonally adjusted dollars of new loans per month. * Within the six most recent months, which the CFPB says are not final. The CSV has every month from January 2007, with seasonally adjusted and unadjusted volume.
What this counts
The CFPB Consumer Credit Trends series uses a sample of de-identified credit records from one of the national credit bureaus. Volume is the dollar amount of student loans newly showing up on credit records in the month, grouped by the borrower’s credit score at origination. A deep subprime score is below 580 in the CFPB’s tiers. These are new loans, not late ones; for missed payments see our student loan delinquency by state page.
Source
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Credit Trends, student loans, origination volume by credit score (volume_data_Score_Level_STU.csv), downloaded October 12, 2026. U.S. government data in the public domain. Our table is available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)".
Steven Reynolds, "New Student Loans by Credit Score," My Credit Guide, October 12, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/student-loan-originations-by-credit-score/.