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A federal judge ordered retail trade groups Thursday to make changes to websites that seek to persuade merchants to oppose a proposed settlement over credit card swipe fees.
April 11 -
Banks used to sell payment protection and identity theft protection products as a way for customers to protect themselves from criminals and unexpected mishaps. Now Barclays is telling U.S. card customers they're just "products you don't need."
April 11 -
A federal judge is set to rule soon on whether merchantsobject.com is misleading U.S. retailers. The ruling carries important implications for the proposed multibillion-dollar settlement over credit card interchange fees.
April 10
Another set of reassuring monthly reports from the major credit card issuers underscores a major theme of the banking industry’s first-quarter results: loan loss reserve releases continue to pad profits.
Early-stage delinquency rates, or the percentage of balances past due by between 30 days and 60 days, were flat to down at most of the Big Six issuers in March from February. The monthly reports arrived Monday, the first business day after JPMorgan Chase (JPM) said a reduction in its allowance for bad credit cards lifted its first quarter net income by $310 million. (Data for the nation’s largest issuers is shown in the following graphic. Interactive controls are described in the captions. Text continues below.)
The credit card business accounts for the bulk of the
Citigroup (NYSE:C) said the release in its card business shrank substantially from the year prior, but the company still notched a $300 million drawdown of its allowance for bad loans in its core operations during the first quarter.
The drop in early-stage delinquencies was in line with the seasonal pattern in March, as was an uptick in chargeoff rates at several issuers. Three-month average payment rates, or the percentage of outstanding principal balances that cardholders pay off, strengthened at most of the Big Six, though it fell 10 basis points at Discover from February to 21.27% in March.
The change in three-month average portfolio yields, or revenues as a percentage of receivables, was mixed, though the figure has generally been falling at Bank of America (BAC) and Discover (DFS) for some time.
Citi said its card revenues held flat year-over-year in the first quarter despite a decline in receivables because of higher net interest margins. The company’s three-month average portfolio yield increased 40 basis points from February to 17.38% in March.
Receivables typically decline in the first quarter as late-year holiday borrowing recedes, but, even after seasonal adjustments, credit card lending appears stagnant. After collapsing by almost a fifth between late 2008 and mid-2011,
