NEW YORK— Credit card borrowers remained steady in their payments amid rising interest rates in May as delinquency rates were unchanged at major U.S. card issuers tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The average 30-plus-days delinquency rate for American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc., Discover Financial Services and JPMorgan Chase & Co. was unchanged at 1.11% from April and ticked up by 32 basis points from a year ago, according to S&P Global.
The average delinquency rate of the six major card issuers in the last 12 months was 0.97%, according to Market Intelligence data, S&P Global said.
Bank of America, Discover and JPMorgan saw sequential decreases in delinquency rates in May, while that of American Express was unchanged. Citigroup and Capital One saw a slight uptick from April, the analysis found.
Additional Findings
S&P Global Market Intelligence further reported that through May:
- Capital One had the highest year-over-year increase in its 30-plus-days delinquency rate among its peers, at 54 basis points. American Express and JPMorgan had the lowest rise, each at 18 basis points year over year.
- Meanwhile, the card issuers' average credit card net charge-off rate edged higher for the fifth month in a row, continuing the trend that started this year.
- Most of the six lenders posted higher net loss rates in May than in April. Only Discover's was unchanged at 1.78%, S&P Global stated.
- Citigroup booked the highest net charge-off rate, going above 2% for the first time since April 2021. The rest of the card issuers had net charge-off rates of less than 2%.
- Year over year, Capital One had the biggest increase in net loss rate, followed by Citigroup, then Bank of America. Overall, the net charge-off rate for the major card issuers was up 53 basis points on average from a year ago, S&P Global added.