The Monetary Authority of Macao released today the credit card statistics for the first quarter of 2015. The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 846,825 at the end of March 2015, equivalent to an increase of 1.9% over a quarter earlier. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards were 611,010, 78,138 and 157,677 respectively. MOP cards, HKD cards and RMB cards witnessed respective growth of 2.0%, 0.5% and 2.4% quarter-to-quarter. Compared with a year ago, MOP cards and RMB cards (the majority of which are MOP/RMB dual-currency cards) rose 12.4% and 9.6% respectively whereas HKD cards dropped 2.7%. As at end-March 2015, credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao reached MOP18.3 billion, up 5.4% from end-December 2014. Credit card receivables amounted to MOP2.0 billion while the rollover amount totalled MOP549.0 million, accounting for 28.0% 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 to 1.07%. For the first quarter of 2015, the credit card turnover decreased 5.7% quarter-to-quarter to MOP4.3 billion. The cash advance turnover was MOP217.3 million, accounting for 5.0% of total credit card turnover. Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, went up 5.4% from the previous quarter to MOP4.6 billion.
