Default rates among financial credit establishments are significantly higher than among banks. This result coincides with that obtained by Carey et al. (1998) for the US case, although the credit establishments considered here also include those that are subsidiaries of banking institutions. What seems clear is that certain types of finance (consumer durables in particular) and certain types of borrower (those without access to bank credit) are riskier. The fact that credit establishments specialize in a small number of operations could deprive their credit portfolios of the benefits of greater product risk diversification. In fact, a decrease over time.
