Over 1 million credit cards in circulation

The total number of personal credit cards in circulation continued to grow in the first quarter of 2017, according to statistics released yesterday by the Monetary Authority of Macau. Both the credit card turnover and total repayments demonstrated varied degrees of increase from a year ago.

At the end of March, the total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 1,093,213, an increase of 3.2 percent over the previous quarter, or 11.9 percent over the previous year.  The numbers of pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong dollar (HKD) cards and renminbi (RMB) cards rose year-on-year by 10.7 percent (to 768,289), 11 percent (to 93,005) and 16.5 percent (to 231,919) respectively.

Credit card credit limits granted by banks in Macau reached MOP26.4 billion, up 4.1 percent from end-December 2016 or 16.1 percent from end-March 2016. Credit card receivables amounted to MOP2.3 billion while the rollover amount totaled MOP739.7 million, accounting for 32.7% of credit card receivables.  The delinquency ratio, i.e. the ratio of delinquent amount to credit card receivables overdue for more than three months, rose from 1.21 percent at end-December 2016 to 1.46 percent at end-March 2017.

For the first quarter of 2017 the credit card turnover totaled MOP4.8 billion, down 3.5% quarter-to-quarter but up 9.1 percent year-on-year.  The cash advance turnover was MOP249.9 million, accounting for 5.2 percent of total credit card turnover.  Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, amounted to MOP5.1 billion, representing an increase of 5.5 percent from the previous quarter or 9.2 percent from the same period last year.