Capital markets are complex and non-bank finance takes many forms: corporate bonds, private equity, public equity, venture capital or peer-to-peer lending, to name just a few. And integration not just relates to financial products but also to integral elements of the respective markets, such as stock exchanges and central counterparties.
But, on the whole, the data do not indicate that faster paydown is a significant factor. Historically, households tend to repay their credit card balances at a faster rate during good economic times and tend to slow this rate when economic activity is weak. And, over the past several years, this tendency appears to have held up.