Credit card balances written off as uncollectable fell in June at Bank of America (BofA), Chase, Capital One and American Express, providing further evidence of a recovering US economy.
But the US second-largest card issuer, Citigroup, bucked the trend by reporting an increase both in write-offs and late card payments.
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Citi said credit card write-offs rose by 30 basis points in June to 11.46% from 11.16% in May. Late card payments also rose at Citi, with payments past due by 30 days rising 16 basis points from 8.42% in May to 8.58% in June.
Elsewhere, the position was altogether more positive. Write-offs at BofA declined for the third month in a row, to 11.98% from 12.7% in May.
The rate of late credit card payments also fell at BofA in June to 6.16% – its lowest rate this year from 6.39% in May.
American Express said its card write-offs declined by 60 basis points to 5.7% in June; late payments dipped to 2.7% in June from 2.9% the previous month.
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By GlobalDataChase, the retail unit of JPMorgan Chase, reported the biggest monthly drop in card write-offs of the major US card issuers.
Write-offs at Chase fell by 103 basis points from 9.35% in May to 8.32% in June.
Late payments also dropped for the sixth month in a row to 4.3% from 4.38% in May.
The positive news from Chase’s card unit coincided with the release on 15 July of JPMorgan Chases second quarter and first half results.
Chase’s card division reported net profits for the second quarter of $343m compared with a net loss of $672m in the corresponding period last year.
For the year to date, the card unit recorded a net profit of $40m, compared to a loss of $1.21bn in the year ago period.
In a conference call with analysts, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that he expected Chases card write-off rate to keep improving but added it would be a slow process, due to the sluggish economy.
Capital One also reported a drop in charge-offs to 9.3% in June from 9.5% in May.
