According to Collections & Credit Risk, credit card charge-offs rose 20% in the third quarter of 2007 over the same period in 2006. Bank of America, Chase, American Express and Citigroup set the pace with a combined $5.57 billion in charge-offs for the three months ending September, 2007.
This is less than the second quarter’s increase of 22%. Here is how the individual issuers fared.
Credit Card Issuers with the Most Charge-offs
- Bank of America $2.024 billion (15.8%)
- Chase $1.363 billion (6.5%)
- American Express $1.195 billion (40.4%)
- Citigroup $993 million (23.7%)
- Capital One $204 million (18.1%)
- Discover $204 million (8.3%)
- Wells Fargo $176 million (32.3%)
- Washington Mutual $120 million (22.4%)
- US Bancorp $77 million (37.5%)
- Advanta $59 million (53.9%)
- National City $29 million (45%)
- Fifth Third Bank $13 million (62.5%)
- BB&T $12 million (9.1%)
- Commerce Bancshares $5 million (16.2%)
- FirstMerit $1.9 million (-14.9%)
Bank of America topped the list with $2.02 billion in charge-offs, representing an increase of 15.8%. This includes former MBNA accounts, which are now owned by Bank of America. Fifth Third rose one place from its rapid increase in charge-offs.
The total list counts over $6.4 billion in charge-offs. Credit card issuers traditionally guard what portion of those charge-offs is actually principal balances. Much of it is simply interest and fees added to that balance, so the actual losses are only a fraction of the reported charge-off figures.
Tags: most credit card charge-offs