The chief executive, Peter Davis, said that a general decrease in consumer spending also contributed to the slowdown.
Both said a decrease in consumer spending after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had hurt their businesses.
The university's preliminary report for December was said to have shown a sharp decrease in consumer sentiment, to 89.6 from 93.7 in November.
While some will point to the modest decrease in consumer debt as real progress, it must be recognized that the decrease has been more than offset by large increases in federal government debt.
In a sign that the bank's view of consumer solvency is improving, JPMorgan knocked down its provisions for credit losses by 17% in its card services division and 30% for all loans bank wide.
The presented findings, support those of existing empirical studies, which suggest that abnormal loan growth during a lending booms increases the ratio of NPLs to gross advances and that rapid growth in bad loans diminishes the capital ratio, which indicates a decrease in bank solvency.
The Samsung Economic Research Institute, an economic forecaster loosely affiliated with the Samsung group, Korea's largest conglomerate, reported a slight decrease in a survey of consumer confidence going into the third quarter.
Second quarter earnings by companies like Starbucks, McDonald's and Chipotle have indicated a decrease in spending by US consumers.
The decrease is likely attributable to the shift in consumer preference from brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping.
The scheme, which is backed by Tory MPs Ian Liddell-Grainger and Heather Wheeler MP, was developed following a 58% decrease in UK credit supply to consumers and small businesses.
Yet, the reason for the narrowing of the deficit was primarily a sharp decrease in imports, an indication that consumers had cut their spending drastically.
