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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (May 15) the results of its survey on credit card lending for the first quarter of 2008.
Total card receivables decreased by 6.0% (or HK$4.6 billion) in the first quarter after rising by 8.8% in the last quarter of 2007. The decrease reflected the receding effect of the payment of salaries tax by credit cards. The transfer of HK$155 million of rescheduled receivables outside the surveyed institutions'credit card portfolios during the quarter also contributed to the decrease. The total number of credit card accounts reduced by 0.1%.
The rollover amount, which reflects the amount of borrowing by customers using their credit cards, reduced to HK$24.4 billion from HK$24.6 billion as at the end of December 2007.
The charge-off amount decreased further in the first quarter to HK$499 million or 0.67% of average receivables from HK$504 million at the end of 2007. The quarterly annualised* charge-off ratio dropped further to 2.68% from 2.73% in the previous quarter.
The delinquent amount decreased to HK$234 million at the end of March 2008 compared with HK$269 million at the end of December 2007. As a result, the delinquency ratio declined to a new record low of 0.32%. The combined delinquent and rescheduled ratio (after taking into account the transfer mentioned above) also declined to a record low of 0.40%** at the end of March, despite a slight increase in the amount of rescheduled receivables to HK$54 million.
*This assumes the quarterly rate of charge-off is maintained for the next three quarters.
**Not the sum of the two ratios, due to rounding
For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Peggy Lo, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687
Ends/Thursday, May 15, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:00
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