Credit Card Lending Survey Results For First Quarter 2007

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (Tuesday) the results of its survey on credit card lending for the first quarter of 2007. 

Due to the receding effect of the payment of salary taxes by credit card, total card receivables decreased by 6.3% (or HK$4.5 billion) in the first quarter after rising by 11.8% in the previous quarter. The transfer of some HK$126 million of rescheduled receivables (representing 0.2% of average receivables) outside the credit card portfolio during the quarter also contributed to the decline in total receivables.  The total number of credit card accounts rose further by 1.1%.

The rollover amount, which reflects the amount of borrowing by customers using their credit cards, increased to HK$25.1 billion from HK$25.0 billion as at end-December 2006.

The charge-off amount increased further in the first quarter to HK$0.55 billion or 0.79% of average receivables from HK$0.54 billion in the previous quarter.  The annualised¹ charge-off ratio rose to 3.17% from 3.13% in the previous quarter.

The delinquent amount decreased to HK$262 million at the end of March compared with HK$269 million at the end of the previous quarter.  However, the delinquency ratio increased to 0.39% from 0.37% at the end of December due to a faster contraction in total card receivables.  Similarly, the combined delinquent and rescheduled ratio increased to 0.46%² at end-March from 0.44% at end-December, although the amount of rescheduled receivables declined to HK$51 million from HK$52 million.

For further enquiries, please contact:
Sara Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
15 May 2007

¹ This assumes the quarterly rate of charge-off is maintained for the next three quarters.
² Not the sum of the two ratios, due to rounding.
 

Survey on the Banking Sector's Credit Card Lending

Notes to Press Release 

1. This survey covers authorized institutions (AIs) and some subsidiaries of AIs that are engaged in credit card business.  It does not cover card issuers that are not AI-related.

2. Credit card receivables in the survey refer to credit card receivables from individual credit cardholders.

3. The delinquency ratio is measured by the total amount of credit card receivables overdue for more than 90 days and remaining unpaid at the last day of the reporting month as a percentage of total credit card receivables. Credit card receivables are classified as overdue when a payment is past due on the last day of the reporting month (see also Note 7 below).  The delinquency ratio provides an early indication of the quality of the credit card portfolio.

4. Charge-off amount refers to the total amount of credit card receivables written off the loan book during a period (irrespective of when a charge is made to the profit and loss account, which may be earlier if it is the institution’s policy to create provisions at an earlier time than the amount is written off).  Charge-off policies vary from institution to institution.  Normally, an account will be written off when the receivable has been overdue for more than 180 days or when the ultimate repayment of the receivable is unlikely (e.g. the cardholder is bankrupt or cannot be located).  
   
   The quarterly annualised ratio foreshadows the extent of charge-offs that would be experienced if the current quarter’s charge-off ratio were to be sustained for the next three quarters.  The year-to-date ratio tracks the actual charge-offs to date and is annualised for purposes of comparison.

5. The delinquency and the charge-off ratios are complementary to each other.  The former takes into account those credit card receivables that at the reporting date had been overdue for more than 90 days but had not yet been written off.  It is therefore an indicator of future charge-offs.  The latter captures those receivables that were written off during the specified period because they were seriously overdue (e.g. for more than 180 days) plus those written off earlier than 180 days because they were considered irrecoverable (e.g. because the borrower has gone into bankruptcy).

6. The rescheduled ratio is measured by the amount of rescheduled receivables retained in the card portfolio which are not captured as delinquent at period-end as a percentage of total receivables.  This ratio provides supplementary information on the quality of the credit card receivables.

7. Rollover amount, representing "borrowing", is the amount within total receivables in respect of which the cardholder has not fully repaid the statement balance but has at least made the minimum amount of payment required by the authorized institution.  It does not include amounts that are overdue.  An account is overdue when the minimum payment is not made upon the due date.

8. Rollover ratio refers to the percentage of total rollover amounts to total credit card receivables.  While total receivables relate to the month-end position, total rollover amounts are based on balances recorded at the statement date.