Credit card receivables up 9.9% to P132.2B

MANILA, Philippines - More and more consumers are using their credit cards to finance the purchase of goods and services as receivables of banks almost posted a double-digit growth last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

Data from the central bank showed that credit card receivables of universal, commercial, and thrift banks increased by 9.93 percent to P132.24 billion last year from P120.3 billion in 2010.

The BSP said universal and commercial banks accounted for 99.6 percent of the total credit card receivables last year while thrift banks got a marginal share of 0.4 percent.

Credit card receivables of universal and commercial banks as well as their subsidiaries went up by 10 percent to P131.76 billion last year from P119.75 billion in 2010 while the receivables of thirft banks fell11.55 percent to P481 million from P544 million.

On the other hand, the credit card receivables of subsidiaries of universal and commercial banks amounted to P27.6 billion, bringing to P159.5 billion the total credit card receivables of the entire banking system.

Data showed that the banking industry’s total loan portfolio jumped 17.7 percent to P3.483 trillion last year from P2.96 trillion in 2010.

The BSP said the non-performing credit card receivables improved 3.57 percent to P14.41 billion last year from P14.95 billion while the industry’s loan loss reserves declined by 8.5 percent to P11.9 billion from P13.01 billion.

It pointed out that the ratio of non-performing credit card receivables to total credit card receivables of the industry improved to 1.53 percent from 1.94 percent.

Non-performing credit card receivables to total non-performing loans likewise eased to 13.2 percent from 14.4 percent in the previous quarter and managed to maintain last year’s ratio due to the faster rate of decline in non-performing credit card receivables as against total non-performing loans.

Finally, the ratio of non-performing credit card receivables to total loan portfolio improved to 0.5 percent from the 0.6 percent ratio recorded last quarter as well as last year.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slackened to 3.6 percent last year from 7.6 percent in 2010.

Economic managers through the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) see the country’s GDP expanding between five percent and six percent this year.