The Monetary Authority of Macao released today the credit card statistics for the fourth quarter of 2015. The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 926,091 at the end of December 2015, equivalent to an increase of 2.9% over a quarter earlier. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards were 665,989, 81,062 and 179,040 respectively. MOP cards, HKD cards and RMB cards witnessed respective growth of 2.6%, 1.6% and 4.8% quarter-to-quarter. Compared with a year ago, MOP cards and HKD cards rose 11.2% and 4.2% respectively, while RMB cards, the majority of which were MOP/RMB dual-currency cards, rose even faster by 16.3%. As at end-December 2015, credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao reached MOP21.1 billion, up 4.3% from end-September 2015. Credit card receivables amounted to MOP2.4 billion while the rollover amount totalled MOP681.8 million, accounting for 29.0% 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 from 1.10% at end-September to 1.13% at end-December. For the fourth quarter of 2015, the credit card turnover grew 6.2% to MOP4.7 billion. The cash advance turnover was MOP216.6 million, accounting for 4.6% of total credit card turnover. Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, edged up 0.6% from the previous quarter to MOP4.6 billion.
