Has the card issuance slowed down and the non-performing rate raised the ＂coolness＂ of the credit card business？

　　Different from the rapid development in the previous two years, in 2018, especially in the second half of the year, the growth rate of credit card business of many banks declined, banks gradually returned to calm, and credit card performance was divided. The "rise" of NPL ratio has sounded the alarm for banks. In the future, banks will pay more attention to "quality" on the basis of increasing "quantity" of credit cards — —

　　The non-performing rate of credit cards soared and credit consumption peaked … … Since the second half of last year, the risk of bank retail business has been widely discussed, among which credit card business has become the core topic.

　　What is the development of credit card business of listed banks in 2018? What new changes have taken place? Is the credit card business really as "bad" as the market circulated?

　　Slow card issuing speed

　　After analyzing the 2018 annual reports of a number of listed banks, the Economic Daily reporter found that, unlike the rapid development in the previous two years, in 2018, especially in the second half of the year, the growth rate of credit card business of many banks declined, and banks gradually returned to calm, and credit card performance began to differentiate.

　　In terms of cumulative card issuance, five banks, namely Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Bank and China Construction Bank, have exceeded 100 million cards, with the number of cards issued reaching 151 million, 103 million, 110 million and 121 million respectively. In addition, the data of China Merchants Bank’s semi-annual report in 2018 shows that its cumulative number of cards issued has also exceeded 100 million.

　　"Although the four state-owned banks firmly occupy the top spot in cumulative card issuance, the trend of stock banks coming from behind should not be underestimated. For example, the cumulative growth rate of card issuance by Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China CITIC Bank and China Everbright Bank is above 30% year-on-year, far exceeding the average growth rate of 16% of Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank. " Su Xiaorui, a researcher at Sack Research Institute, said.

　　In terms of new card issuance, Agricultural Bank of China issued 18,010,600 new cards, ranking first, which also made the cumulative card issuance of Agricultural Bank of China reach 103 million, becoming a new member of the credit card "100 million clubs" after ICBC, CCB, China Merchants Bank and Bank of China. The annual report shows that CITIC Bank, Ping An Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and China Everbright Bank have also issued more than 15 million new cards.

　　Li Wanfu, a researcher at Rong 360 Big Data Research Institute, said: "In terms of the year-on-year growth rate of new card issuance, most banks maintained a moderate level of around 10% in 2018." According to statistics, China Everbright Bank and China CITIC Bank performed outstandingly, with year-on-year growth rates as high as 64.05% and 43.44% respectively. Minsheng Bank is as low as 3.91%; The number of new cards issued by Zheshang Bank has shrunk by 29.45%. It is not difficult to see that the trend of differentiation is very obvious.

　　Overdraft balance and consumption are stable.

　　The "Overall Situation of Payment System Operation in 2018" shows that by the end of 2018, the total credit granted by bank cards was 15.40 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.40%; The credit balance of bank cards is 6.85 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of about 23%. Although it has slowed down compared with the growth rate of 36.83% in the previous year, it is still in the stage of scale expansion as a whole.

　　Specific to major banks, the overdraft balance of ICBC and China Construction Bank exceeded 600 billion yuan, and China Merchants Bank and Bank of Communications exceeded 500 billion yuan.

　　It is worth noting that Zheshang Bank, which ranks at the bottom in terms of card issuance and overdraft balance, has a much faster expansion rate than other banks. Judging from the overdraft balance, its year-on-year growth was 165.32%.

　　Judging from the ratio of overdraft balance to the scale of personal loans of banks, credit card overdrafts (loans) of many banks account for over 30% of personal loans, for example, the data of Everbright Bank is 38% and Minsheng Bank is 32%.

　　Observing the amount of credit card consumption/transaction, many banks also performed well. For example, China Merchants Bank, which is good at retail business, ranks first in the banking industry with an annual consumption record of 3.79 trillion yuan, while Bank of Communications is close behind with an annual consumption of 3.07 trillion yuan. China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Ping An Bank are all above 2.5 trillion yuan; Postal savings bank and zheshang bank are the lowest, and the annual credit card consumption is less than 1 trillion yuan.

　　"Analysis of the 13 banks that have announced the credit card consumption transaction volume in 2018, the ranking of their annual transaction volume is basically the same as that in the first half of 2018. Only Shanghai Pudong Development Bank overtook the Agricultural Bank with a slight advantage of more than 50 billion yuan." Li Wanfu said.

　　Judging from the year-on-year growth rate, the three banks exceeded 50%. Among them, Zheshang Bank has a growth rate of 176.02% due to its small base; Ping An Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank are also above 50%; Among the large state-owned banks, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank grew rapidly, while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank were relatively stable, with an increase of less than 20%. Other banks are at 25% to 40%.

　　It is worth noting that in 2018, banks actively explored the profit space of credit cards. In addition to the regular credit card loan business, they also launched various installment products and deferred repayment products to solve the short-term capital turnover problem of users. These products, on the one hand, have consolidated the competitiveness of bank credit cards, on the other hand, they have also become an important means to increase income of credit cards. According to the data released by UnionPay, the credit card installment income of UnionPay data customers accounted for 36.7% in 2018, surpassing the interest income accounting for 30%, becoming the largest source of income for credit card business.

　　Credit card non-performing rate rises

　　"In the past two years, the development momentum of personal consumer finance has been relatively strong, and excessive credit and long-term lending have become hot topics. With the expansion of the number of cards issued, the total credit and the overdraft balance, the risks behind it are gradually exposed. " Su Xiaorui said.

　　According to the annual report, due to the influence of macroeconomic trends, the non-performing rate of credit cards in many banks increased in 2018. The data shows that Minsheng Bank has the highest credit card non-performing rate, reaching 2.15%, up 0.08 percentage points year-on-year; The NPL ratio of CITIC Bank was 1.85%, second only to Minsheng Bank, but it increased the most, reaching 0.61 percentage points. Pudong Development Bank, Postal Savings Bank, Ping An, Zheshang and China Construction Bank also rose to varying degrees.

　　According to the report of Sack Research Institute, it is no accident that the bad credit card rate of many banks rises simultaneously. Firstly, it is affected by the downward pressure of macro-economy. Secondly, some joint-stock banks’ credit card development strategies are more radical before, and the competition for card issuance is white-hot. After weakening the risk control, some customers with poor qualifications and serious joint debts may be introduced.

　　In addition, Li Wanfu said that the regulatory environment has become stricter, and banks’ criteria for identifying non-performing loans have become stricter. Loans that are overdue for more than 90 days can no longer be classified as non-performing, which has also led to an increase in the non-performing rate of some banks to some extent.

　　In the eyes of the industry, the "rise" of non-performing rate has sounded the alarm for banks. In the future, banks will pay more attention to the pursuit of "quality" on the basis of "quantity" of credit cards, but they will not be held back.

　　"It is expected that the scale of credit card business will maintain a steady growth rate in 2019. In addition to introducing more credit data to optimize the risk control model, banks will develop more related products for users with good credit habits, meet the individual needs of users, expand users’ credit ability, and increase the per capita profit space of credit cards. " Li Wanfu said.