As the US unemployment rate was up in May from the April figure of 8.1% to 8.2%, total card chargeoffs were up 27 basis points from the March figure of 5.17% to 5.44%. This after months of cardholder pay-downs, having not seen an uptick since August 2011. The negative impact on chargeoffs was driven largely by day count mechanics at a single large issuer (Citibank), which otherwise would have remained flat, while the percentage of receivables associated with accounts delinquent 60 days or more decreased by 11 bps to 2.03%.
Meanwhile, the prime monthly payment rate fell 53 bps to 21.44%, having remained unchanged at around 21% over the past year just as the long-term unemployed for 27 weeks and over also decreased. Among them, long-term unemployed for 27 weeks and over also increased slightly from 5.1 million to 5.4 million, accounting for 42.8% of the total unemployed. But involuntary part-time workers due to layoffs and the like actually grew from 7.7 million to 7.9 million.
