Banks issued 1.3m credit cards by end of December

The number of personal credit cards issued by local banks rose to over 1.3 million by the end of December 2018, as both credit card turnover and total repayments witnessed growth compared to last year, according to statistics released by the Monetary Authority of Macao on Saturday.

The number of personal credit cards issued by banks in Macau stood at 1,311,606 at the end of December 2018, equivalent to an increase of 2.3 percent from the previous quarter or 10.5 percent from a year earlier.

The number of pataca cards, Hong Kong dollar cards and renminbi cards grew year-on-year by 9.8 percent (to 923,128), 6.2 percent (to 93,950) and 14.3 percent (to 294,528) respectively.

By the end of December 2018, the credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macau reached MOP35 billion, up by 7.8 percent since last quarter or 22.7 percent since last year.

Credit card receivables amounted to MOP2.8 billion, of which the rollover amount totaled MOP795.9 million, representing 28.2 percent of credit card receivables.

The delinquency ratio, that is, the ratio of the delinquent amounts overdue for more than three months to credit card receivables, dropped 0.17 percentage points to 1.32 percent when compared with the previous reporting period.

For the fourth quarter of 2018, credit card turnover totaled MOP6.1 billion, a rise of 8.6 percent quarter-to-quarter or 8.5 percent year-on-year. Credit card repayments, including interest and fees, rose 2.6 percent quarter-to-quarter or 10.3 percent year-on-year to MOP5.8 billion.