Credit card receivables up 4% in Q1

Credit card transactions rose 4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2010, helping boost consumer spending during the period, Bangko Sentral said Friday.

Data showed that credit card receivables of universal, commercial and thrift banks amounted to P130.7 billion in the January-March period, up from P125.7 billion recorded during the same period last year.

The figures included transactions of the banks’ credit card subsidiaries.

The use of credit card went up year-on-year but it was down 4.4 percent from P136.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, because of seasonal factors.

Spending usually peaks during the fourth quarter of the year because of the long holidays.

Credit card receivables represented more than a quarter of total consumer loans in the first quarter.

Bangko Sentral also noted that the ratio of total credit card receivables to total loan portfolio, excluding interbank loans, rose to 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010 from 5.0 percent in the fourth quarter and 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Universal and commercial banks accounted for 83.9 percent, or P109.6 billion, of the total credit card receivables, while credit card subsidiaries of these banks held 15.7 percent, or P20.5 billion. Independent thrift banks accounted for 0.4 percent, or P500 million.  –Roderick T. dela Cruz, Manila Standard Today