Bank card delinquencies fell in April from a month earlier in the U.S. and Canada, according to Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, which said charge-offs rose slightly.
The results come as a number of readings have shown delinquencies on a host of consumer loans may have peaked, with charge-offs--or borrowings lenders don't expect to collect--nearly doing so.
S&P said while charge-offs rose 0.1 percentage point from March to 10.2%, the amount of 30-day delinquencies dropped 0.2 point to 5.4% while those at least 90 days behind fell for a second straight month, declining 0.1 point to 2.9%. Declines were bigger for U.S. store-branded cards.
"We continue to expect credit-card losses to remain in the 10%-11% range in the next 12 months in light of the declining receivables balance," said analyst Kelly Luo. "However, if delinquencies continue to fall and receivables balances stabilize in the coming months, we believe credit card losses could decline to about 9.5%."
The amount of the outstanding balance card holders paid in April fell 0.2 point to 19.3%.
