Credit card receivables up 13% to P81.9B as of June

The use of credit cards is becoming even more widespread with banks reporting double-digit growth rates in credit card receivables, pushing total credit card spending over the P80-billion mark as of end-June this year.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday that the total credit card receivables (CCRs) of universal/commercial banks (U/KBs) and thrift banks (TBs) settled at P81.9 billion as of end-June.

The BSP said the end-semester total was 12.9 percent higher than last year’s P72.6 billion and about 3.9 percent higher than last quarter’s P78.8 billion.

According to the BSP, the proportion of CCRs to the combined total loan portfolio (TLP) of U/KBs and TBs (exclusive of interbank loans) was recorded at 4.5 percent – the same as the previous quarter’s ratio but higher than year ago’s four-percent ratio.

The BSP said that based on bank reports, the bulk of these receivables were generally current in status, except for some P15.7 billion or 19.2 percent which were past due.

The BSP said the CCR past due ratio eased from the previous quarter’s 20 percent and year ago’s 19.6-percent ratio.

The improvement in ratio, however, was driven by the growth in CCRs and although banks also reported that they were able to contain past-due CCRs in the two comparative quarters.

The P15.7 billion past due CCRs represented 8.5 percent of the total non-performing loans (NPL) of both U/KBs/TBs, compared with 8.2 percent in the first quarter and 6.7 percent in the same quarter last year.

On the other hand, the ratio of past due CCRs to TLP remained less than a percent in the three comparative periods.

The U/KBs (bank proper) still had the biggest exposures at 72 percent share of total CCRs. Credit card subsidiaries of U/KBs followed with a 24.4-percent share of total CCRs.