The Monetary Authority of Macao released today the credit card statistics for the first quarter of 2013. The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 668,966 at the end of March 2013, equivalent to an increase of 3.1% over a quarter earlier. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards were 483,940, 72,461 and 112,565 respectively. MOP cards, HKD cards and RMB cards witnessed respective growth of 2.8%, 2.1% and 5.0% quarter-to-quarter. Compared with a year ago, MOP cards and HKD cards rose 13.9% and 7.6% respectively, while RMB cards registered an upsurge of 35.1% mainly driven by a marked 36.8% growth of MOP/RMB dual-currency cards. As at end-March 2013, credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao reached MOP11.4 billion, up 5.1% from end-December 2012. Credit card receivables amounted to MOP1.5 billion while the rollover amount totalled MOP492.2 million, accounting for 33.1% of credit card receivables. The delinquency ratio, i.e. the ratio of delinquent amount overdue for more than three months to credit card receivables, edged up to 0.66%. For the first quarter of 2013, the credit card turnover dropped 6.7% quarter-to-quarter to MOP3.2 billion. The cash advance turnover was MOP152.3 million, accounting for 4.8% of total credit card turnover. Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, went up 10.0% from the previous quarter to MOP3.5 billion.
