Credit card receivables up 2.9% to P133.9B

MANILA, Philippines – Credit card receivables of banks operating in the Philippines went up by 2.9 percent in the first nine months of 2010 amid the surprising economic growth, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

Data showed that credit card receivables of universal, commercial, and thrift banks amounted to P133.93 billion as of end-September last year or P3.76 billion more than the P130.17 billion registered in the same period in 2009 as consumers turned to their credit cards to finance the purchase of goods and services.

The BSP said universal and commercial banks accounted for 83.2 percent of the total credit card receivables as of end-June last year while credit card subsidiaries of universal and commercial banks cornered a 16.6 percent share. Thrift banks got a marginal share of 0.2 percent.

Credit card receivables of universal and commercial banks as well as their subsidiaries inched up by 2.8 percent to P133.67 billion as of end-September last year from P129.95 billion in the same period in 2009 while the receivables of thrift banks went up by 21 percent to P259 million from 214 million.

Data showed that the banking industry’s total loan portfolio expanded 10.3 to P2.78 trillion as of end-September last year from P2.52 trillion as of end-September in 2009.

The BSP said the ratio of non-performing credit card receivables to total credit card receivables of the industry worsened to 13.50 percent as of end-September last year from 12.78 percent ratio in the same period in 2009 due to the 8.6 percent increase in non-performing credit card receivables from P16.64 billion in 2009 to P18.08 billion last year.

This translated to a 6.82 percent in loan loss reserves of P16.92 billion as of end-September last year from P15.25 billion in the same period in 2009.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth zoomed to 7.5 percent in the first nine months of last year from 0.7 percent in the same period in 2009.

Economic managers through the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) upgraded the country’s GDP growth forecast last July to five percent to six percent instead of 2.6 percent to 3.6 percent this year. –Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star)