Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) said credit card charge-offs
and delinquencies continued to decline for a sixth straight month
in May, though they turned higher for auto-finance credit.
U.S. charge-offs--loans banks don't expect to be able to
collect--fluctuated near the end of last year after mostly dropping
in the early months of 2010. The U.S. credit-card industry is
wrestling with a slow recovery as losses from souring loans remain
high.
Net charge-offs in May edged down to 4.84% from 4.97% a month
earlier at Capital One's U.S. card business and to 6.84% from 7.06%
internationally, according to a filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. However, auto-finance charge-offs edged up to
0.9% from 0.84%.
At the company's U.S. credit-card business, 30-day delinquencies
fell to 3.32% from 3.41% a month earlier and to 5.43% from 5.51%
internationally. The auto-loan 30-day delinquency rate increased to
6.35% from 5.84%.
The card-issuer-turned-bank has seen financial results improve
of late and reported in April its first-quarter earnings rose 60%
as the company set aside significantly less for loan losses,
boosting the bottom line.
Shares closed Tuesday at $48.43 and were inactive premarket.
-By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2481;
Tess.Stynes@dowjones.com