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Monday, March 16, 2009

Credit Card Defaults at 20 Year-High

by Calculated Risk on 3/16/2009 07:56:00 PM

From Reuters: U.S. credit card defaults rise to 20 year-high

U.S. credit card defaults rose in February to their highest level in at least 20 years, with losses particularly severe at American Express ... and Citigroup ...

AmEx ... said its net charge-off rate ... rose to 8.70 percent in February from 8.30 percent in January.

... Citigroup Inc (C.N) ... default rate soared to 9.33 percent in February, from 6.95 percent a month earlier ...
...
Chase ... reported its charge-off rate rose to 6.35 percent in February from 5.94 percent in January. ...

Capital One Financial Corp's ... default rate increased to 8.06 percent in February from 7.82 percent in January.
...
Analysts estimate credit card chargeoffs could climb to between 9 and 10 percent this year from 6 to 7 percent at the end of 2008.
The Treasury and Federal Reserve haven't publicly released the indicative loss rates for various asset classes associated with the two stress test economic scenarios (baseline and more adverse), but these numbers are probably approaching the "more adverse" scenario range for credit cards.