The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has announced 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 annualized1 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.
