NEW YORK CITY, New York: According to executives at major US banks, as the national economy softens Americans are starting to fall behind on their credit card and loan payments.

However, delinquency levels were still modest, they added.

However, as they earned a windfall from rising interest rates, profits at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup were higher than analysts' expectations.

At the same time, executives at banks warned that as a recession looms and customer delinquencies climb, this upward trend would tail off this year.

Commenting on the company's first quarter results, Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Mike Santomassimo said, "We have seen some consumer financial health trends gradually weakening from a year ago," as quoted by Reuters.

Meanwhile, the bank's CEO, Charlie Scharf, said, 'While delinquencies and net charge-offs, debt owed to a bank that is unlikely to be recovered have slowly risen as expected, and consumers and businesses generally remain strong."

Mark Mason, Citigroup's finance chief, said, "Delinquency rates were rising as anticipated, but still stood below normal levels in the bank's 'very high quality' loan portfolio. We have tightened credit standards, specifically as a result of the current market environment in cards, we continue to calibrate our credit underwriting .based on macroeconomic trends," as reported by Reuters.

In an interview with reporters, Bank of America Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick said, "The consumers are in great shape in terms of credit quality by any historical standards. Employment remains good, wages remain good, and we haven't seen any cracks in that portfolio yet."

According to UBS analysts, worsening economic conditions would lead to "credit deterioration throughout 2023 and 2024, with losses eventually surpassing pre-pandemic levels, given an oncoming recession," according to Reuters.

However, loan defaults are predicted to stay "below the peaks experienced in prior downturns," they added.