While Canadians continue to carry record debt loads, improvements in the economy are allowing them to service that debt.

Details in the earnings reports from CIBC and National Bank suggest that the banks are seeing fewer credit card accounts slipping into arrears, as Canadians find the cash to make at least their minimum payments.

Loss provisions for CIBC’s credit card division—the largest in Canada—declined to $275 million in the latest quarter.  In the same quarter a year earlier, those provisions had been $367 million.

National Bank’s credit card losses fell from $28-million a year ago, to $24-million in the first quarter.