The Monetary Authority of Macao released today the credit card statistics for the first quarter of 2010. The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 368,124 at the end of March 2010, up 2.47% from the previous quarter. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards were 294,462, 56,149 and 17,513 respectively. MOP cards, HKD cards and RMB cards witnessed respective increases of 2.56%, 0.15% and 8.99% quarter-to-quarter. Compared with a year earlier, RMB cards surged 99.97% while MOP cards and HKD cards grew 10.30% and 2.07% respectively. The introduction of MOP/RMB dual currency credit cards by local banks in the second half of 2009 largely accounted for the marked increase of RMB cards.
As at the end of March 2010, credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao amounted to MOP6.66 billion, up 2.52% from end-December 2009. Credit card receivables reached MOP1.03 billion while the rollover amount totalled MOP0.42 billion, accounting for 41.01% of credit card receivables. The delinquency ratio, i.e. the ratio of delinquent amount overdue for more than three months to credit card receivables, was 1.22%.
In the first quarter of 2010, the credit card turnover decreased by 1.61% quarter-to-quarter to MOP1.81 billion. The cash advance turnover amounted to MOP0.12 billion, accounting for 6.37% of total credit card turnover. Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, grew 11.79% from last quarter to MOP1.98 billion.
