Credit Card Lending Survey Results For Second Quarter 2007

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

Total card receivables increased by 2.1% (or HK$1.4 billion) in the second quarter after declining 6.3% in the previous quarter. The total number of credit card accounts rose further by 2.4%.

The rollover amount, which reflects the amount of borrowing by customers using their credit cards, fell to HK$24.9 billion from HK$25.1 billion as at end-March 2007.

The charge-off amount increased further in the second quarter to HK$564 million or 0.83% of average receivables from HK$555 million in the previous quarter. The annualised¹ charge-off ratio rose to 3.30% from 3.17% in the previous quarter.

The delinquent amount increased to HK$276 million at the end of June compared with HK$262 million at the end of the previous quarter. The delinquency ratio edged up to 0.40% from 0.39% at the end of March. The combined delinquent and rescheduled ratio edged up to 0.47% at end-Jun from 0.46%² at end-March with the amount of rescheduled receivables remaining stable at HK$51 million.

Annex

For further enquiries, please contact:
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Hing-fung Wong, Officer (Press), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
15 August 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.