Credit card charge-offs slip at most U.S. companies
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Additional reporting by Dan Wilchins and Chris Kaufman; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Richard Chang)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. credit card data for December showed some signs that fewer consumers were falling seriously behind in their payments.
Four out of six companies reporting credit card activity for December said charge-offs declined in the month.
Delinquency rates, which portend future credit card defaults, declined at all of the companies except JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), according to regulatory filings on Friday.
The data, while not uniform, was a reversal from a general rise in defaults in November.
December was "a point of flux," said Jason Arnold, analyst at RBC Capital Markets. "If there are two more months of improvement across the board then that's starting to bode a lot more favorably for trends, but we suspect that that won't be the case."
"This is one of those transitional months, and we'll likely see in coming months as a result of seasonality some weakness ... before things get better," Arnold added.
JPMorgan, the largest issuer of Visa-branded credit cards, said charge-offs fell to 7.11 percent last month from 8.81 percent in November. Citigroup Inc (C.N), the leader for MasterCard-branded cards, said charge-offs dropped to 9.56 percent from 10.29 percent over the same period.
American Express Co (AXP.N), the largest U.S. credit card company by purchase volume, logged its seventh straight monthly decline. Defaults dropped to 7.10 percent in December from 7.60 percent in November, the company said. (more)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. credit card data for December showed some signs that fewer consumers were falling seriously behind in their payments.
Four out of six companies reporting credit card activity for December said charge-offs declined in the month.
Delinquency rates, which portend future credit card defaults, declined at all of the companies except JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), according to regulatory filings on Friday.
The data, while not uniform, was a reversal from a general rise in defaults in November.
December was "a point of flux," said Jason Arnold, analyst at RBC Capital Markets. "If there are two more months of improvement across the board then that's starting to bode a lot more favorably for trends, but we suspect that that won't be the case."
"This is one of those transitional months, and we'll likely see in coming months as a result of seasonality some weakness ... before things get better," Arnold added.
JPMorgan, the largest issuer of Visa-branded credit cards, said charge-offs fell to 7.11 percent last month from 8.81 percent in November. Citigroup Inc (C.N), the leader for MasterCard-branded cards, said charge-offs dropped to 9.56 percent from 10.29 percent over the same period.
American Express Co (AXP.N), the largest U.S. credit card company by purchase volume, logged its seventh straight monthly decline. Defaults dropped to 7.10 percent in December from 7.60 percent in November, the company said. (more)
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