Credit Card Sector Maintains Steady Growth

[george]

Credit card sector maintains steady growth

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's credit card sector has grown rather steadily as consumers are being more careful in spending than before, according to the Bank of Thailand (BoT).

Krirk Vanikkul, BoT assistant governor in charge of the Financial Institutions Policy Group, revealed that most credit card holders had spent with greater caution upon concerns over the country's economic slowdown.

However, no signs of irregularity have been noted in the sector, and the default rate has remained stationery at 3 per cent of outstanding loans since 2006.

Non-performing loans in the business are as low as 3 per cent because most operators opt to write off the loans immediately when they occur.

A source said credit card issuers had been more careful in increasing credit amount for their clients upon an awareness of more defaults and NPLs.

As at the end of November last year, the number of credit cards totaled 11,923,010, up by 64,799 or 0.55 per cent with outstanding loans rising by Bt1.51 billion or 0.87 per cent.

Spending through the use of credit cards locally dropped rather significantly by Bt 2.09 billion and that through cards overseas fell Bt 590 million or 18.71 per cent.

However, advance cash withdrawals through the cards increased by Bt 470 million, up 2.73 per cent.

--TNA 2008-01-14