The Monetary Authority of Macao released today the credit card statistics for the fourth quarter of 2012.

The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 648,881 at the end of December 2012, equivalent to an increase of 4.4% over a quarter earlier. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards were 470,751, 70,953 and 107,177 respectively. MOP cards, HKD cards and RMB cards witnessed respective growth of 3.6%, 1.3% and 10.2% quarter-to-quarter. Compared with a year ago, MOP cards and HKD cards rose 13.8% and 6.3% respectively, while the RMB cards registered an upsurge of 39.0% mainly driven by a marked 41.2% growth of MOP/RMB dual-currency cards.

As at end-December 2012, credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao reached MOP10.8 billion, up 5.7% from end-September 2012. Credit card receivables amounted to MOP1.7 billion while the rollover amount totalled MOP502.8 million, accounting for 29.2% 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 down to 0.61%.

For the fourth quarter of 2012, the credit card turnover surged 17.9% quarter-to-quarter to MOP3.4 billion. The cash advance turnover was MOP158.4 million, accounting for 4.7% of total credit card turnover. Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, went up 7.4% from the previous quarter to MOP3.2 billion.