Continued improvement in Discover Financial Services’ card portfolio driven by higher Pulse, Diners Club and third-party issuer volume helped the payments company generate net income of $465 million for the fiscal first quarter ended Feb. 28, the card company reported Tuesday. Discover reported a $104 million loss for the same period last year.
Net revenue increased 3.4%, to $1.73 billion from $1.79 billion.
Discover’s U.S. card sales volume totaled $24 billion, up 7.1% from $22.4 billion. Credit card loan receivables fell 3.3%, to $44.3 billion from $45.8 billion, while total loan receivables increased 3.2%, to $51.7 billion from $50.1 billion.
The net principal credit card charge-off rate decreased 304 basis points, to 5.96% from 9%.
The 30 day-plus card delinquency rate for the quarter decreased by 180 basis points, to 3.59% from 5.39%, while the 90 day-plus card delinquency rate was 1.99%, down 99 basis points from 2.98%.
Total third-party issuer sales volume increased 12.5%, to $1.8 billion from $1.6 billion. Diners Club International sales volume totaled $6.99 billion, up 6.7% from $6.55 billion.
Discover’s proprietary network sales volume totaled $24.8 billion, up 6.9% from $23.2 billion, while the company’s network transactions processed rose 7.3%, to 410 million from 382 million.
Sales volume for Discover’s Pulse PIN-debit network increased 24.6%, to $34.4 billion from $27.6 billion. Total transactions processed on the Pulse network rose 29%, to 929 million from 720 million.
