Total credit card receivables in Hong Kong grew by 4.3 percent or 3.2 billion HK dollars (413 million U.S. dollars) in the fourth quarter last year, the Monetary Authority of Hong Kong announced on Friday.

In its survey on credit card lending, it was also found the transfer of rescheduled receivables outside the surveyed institutions' credit card portfolios fell to 143 million HK dollars in the fourth quarter from 144 million HK dollars in the previous quarter.

The total number of credit card accounts fell by 1 percent, said the authority.

The rollover amount, which reflects the amount of borrowing by customers using their credit cards, fell to 23.8 billion HK dollars at the end of December from 23.9 billion HK dollars at the end of September.

The charge-off amount rose to 584 million HK dollars, or 0.77 percent of average receivables, in the fourth quarter from 505 million HK dollars in the previous quarter. The quarterly annualized charge-off ratio rose to 3.09 percent from 2.74 percent in the previous quarter. ( 1 U.S. dollar = 7.7455 U.S. dollars).

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2009)