Credit Card Lending Survey Results for Third Quarter 2009

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (Thursday) the results of its survey on credit card lending for the third quarter of 2009.

Total card receivables further fell by 0.2% (or HK$0.1 billion) in the third quarter of 2009, after falling 0.3% in the previous quarter. The total number of credit card accounts was little changed at around 12.2 million.

The rollover amount, which reflects the amount of borrowing by customers using their credit cards, declined by HK$0.8 billion to HK$21.5 billion at end-September 2009.

The charge-off amount declined to HK$720 million, or around 1.0% of average receivables, in the third quarter of 2009 from HK$815 million in the previous quarter. The quarterly annualised¹ charge-off ratio also declined to 4.08% from 4.61% in the previous quarter. The transfer of rescheduled receivables outside the surveyed institutions' credit card portfolios rose further to HK$390 million, from HK$353 million in the previous quarter.

The delinquent amount declined to HK$323 million in the third quarter of 2009 compared with HK$357 million in the previous quarter. The delinquency ratio also dropped to 0.46% in the third quarter from 0.50% in the second quarter of 2009. The combined delinquent and rescheduled ratio (after taking into account the transfer of rescheduled receivables mentioned above) declined to 0.58% at end-September 2009, from 0.61% at end-June 2009.

Annex

For further enquiries,
Alice Lo, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
19 November 2009

¹ This assumes the quarterly rate of charge-off is maintained for the next three quarters.