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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published today (February 18) the credit card lending survey results for the fourth quarter of 2013.
Total card receivables rose by 9.5% to HK$118.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, after increasing slightly by 0.9% in the previous quarter. The increase was mainly due to festive spending around the year end and the payment of salaries tax using credit cards. The total number of credit card accounts edged up by 0.6% to around 16.7 million.
The rollover amount, which reflects the amount of borrowing by customers using their credit cards, rose by 1.8% to HK$18.6 billion in the fourth quarter from HK$18.3 billion in the previous quarter. However, the rollover ratio declined to 15.8% from 17.0% in the same period due to a faster increase in total card receivables.
The charge-off amount (and ratio) fell from HK$561 million (0.52%) in the third quarter to HK$522 million (0.46%) in the fourth quarter.
The amount of rescheduled receivables transferred outside the surveyed institutions' credit card portfolios decreased to HK$108 million from HK$151 million in the previous quarter.
The delinquent amount fell to HK$239 million at end-December 2013 from HK$241 million at end-September 2013. Correspondingly, the delinquency ratio decreased slightly to 0.20% from 0.22% in the same period. The combined delinquent and rescheduled ratio (after taking into account the transfer of rescheduled receivables mentioned above) also edged down to 0.27% from 0.29% at end-September 2013.
Ends/Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:30
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