The Monetary Authority of Macao released today the credit card statistics for the third quarter of 2015. The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 899,763 at the end of September 2015, equivalent to an increase of 3.4% over a quarter earlier. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards were 649,151, 79,793 and 170,819 respectively. MOP cards, HKD cards and RMB cards witnessed respective growth of 3.2%, 1.0% and 5.3% quarter-to-quarter. Compared with a year ago, MOP cards and RMB cards (the majority of which were MOP/RMB dual-currency cards) rose 11.2% and 13.5% respectively whereas HKD cards dropped 6.8%. As at end-September 2015, credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao reached MOP20.3 billion, up 4.1% from end-June 2015. Credit card receivables amounted to MOP2.1 billion while the rollover amount totalled MOP643.9 million, accounting for 30.5% 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 1.06% at end-June to 1.10% at end-September. For the third quarter of 2015, the credit card turnover grew 3.1% to MOP4.5 billion. The cash advance turnover was MOP221.7 million, accounting for 5.0% of total credit card turnover. Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, went up 8.6% from the previous quarter to MOP4.6 billion.
