The delinquency ratio fell to 0.39% at the end of September, the Monetary Authority says, the lowest figure since the start of its credit card lending survey in 1996.

In the third quarter, the amount of rescheduled receivables stood at $66 million or 0.11% of total receivables. The combined delinquent and rescheduled ratio fell to 0.50% from 0.52% in the previous quarter.

The charge-off amount decreased in the third quarter to $0.43 billion or 0.74% of average receivables, compared with $0.47 billion or 0.82% in the previous quarter.

Accordingly, the annualised charge-off ratio fell to 2.95% from 3.27% in the previous quarter, the lowest level since the third quarter of 1998.

Credit card accounts rise        

Despite a transfer of $68.6 million of rescheduled receivables (representing 0.1% of average receivables) outside the credit card portfolio during the quarter, total card receivables rose 4.2% in the third quarter. Total number of credit card accounts also rose 3%.