Major US card issuers see November delinquency approximate early pandemic levels

Credit card delinquencies for the six major US card issuers continued to rise in November 2023, approximating delinquency levels at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data gathered by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc., Discover Financial Services and JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted an average 30-plus-day credit card delinquency rate of 1.35% in the month, the highest since May 2020, when the group's average rate was 1.46%.

All six card issuers posted higher 30-plus-day delinquency rates in November 2023, both sequentially and year over year.

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Capital One had the highest delinquency ratio of 1.88% and the biggest year-over-year increase in the ratio.

American Express saw the lowest 30-plus-day delinquency rate of 0.79% and the smallest increase from a year ago.

Broadly, for JPMorgan, card delinquencies already normalized as expected in the middle of 2023, Marianne Lake, JPMorgan's co-CEO of consumer and community banking, said during a Dec. 5, 2023, company presentation.

JPMorgan's 30-plus-day delinquency rate in November 2023 was 0.99%, edging higher sequentially and from the year prior.

The six card issuers also booked a higher average net loss rate in November 2023 of 1.93%, up from 1.87% in October 2023 and by 72 basis points from November 2022.

Capital One again posted the biggest net loss rate of 2.45%, which also reflected the highest year-over-year increase in net loss rate of 135 basis points.

American Express booked a net loss rate of 1.15% in the month, the lowest among its peers and reflecting the smallest year-over-year increase in net loss rate.

Lake predicted that net charge-offs would normalize to pre-pandemic levels into the first quarter of 2024.

Portfolio yield closed mixed for the major card issuers in November 2023, though the average portfolio yield for the six companies was down sequentially to 24.35% from 24.54% in the previous month.

Bank of America, Citigroup and Discover Financial had sequentially lower portfolio yields, while American Express, Capital One and JPMorgan posted sequentially higher portfolio yields, gross of recoveries.

Only Citigroup posted negative growth in portfolio yield year over year in November 2023. The rest had positive year-over-year portfolio yield growth, with JPMorgan exhibiting the highest increase of 193 basis points, followed by American Express, 189 basis points, then Capital One, 135 basis points.

Access data on credit card master trust yields, net charge-offs and delinquencies in Excel format.