The Monetary Authority of Macao released today the credit card statistics for the third quarter of 2012. The total number of personal credit cards in circulation was 621,724 at the end of September 2012, equivalent to an increase of 3.8% over a quarter earlier. The numbers of Pataca (MOP) cards, Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) cards and Renminbi (RMB) cards were 454,417, 70,049 and 97,258 respectively. MOP cards, HKD cards and RMB cards witnessed respective growth of 3.3%, 2.6% and 7.5% quarter-to-quarter. Compared with a year ago, RMB cards advanced 54.0% while MOP cards and HKD cards rose 14.7% and 6.9% respectively. As at end-September 2012, credit card credit limit granted by banks in Macao reached MOP10.2 billion, up 3.8% from end-June 2012. Credit card receivables amounted to MOP1.4 billion while the rollover amount totalled MOP500.3 million, accounting for 34.7% 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 to 0.74%. For the third quarter of 2012, the credit card turnover increased 4.5% quarter-to-quarter to MOP2.9 billion. The cash advance turnover was MOP165.9 million, accounting for 5.7% of total credit card turnover. Credit card repayments, in which payments for interest and fees are included, went up 10.8% from the previous quarter to MOP3.0 billion.
