MasterCard Papers - Reserve Bank Payments Analysis

MasterCard Papers - Reserve Bank of New Zealand Payments Analysis

Edition 15 of the MasterCard Papers series.

The latest payments data recently issued by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Statistics New Zealand has produced a number of very interesting insights into the state of the New Zealand economy.

Outstandings
• Outstandings across all NZ cards in March 2009 fell by just over $50 million to $5.218 billion
• That brings annualised growth for credit card outstandings to a record low of 2.31%

Electronic Card Transactions
• The value of card transactions increased in March by $361 million to $4.7797 billion.
• The number of transactions also saw growth in March 2009, up 9 million transactions to 90 million.

Other stats
• Credit limits on NZ issued cards continue to fall (down to $17.689 billion), as did utilisation which fell to 29.50%. This combination underlines a consolidation of unsecured borrowing.
• Household debt rose by $648 million in March 2009 to $175.767 billion.
• Credit card outstandings as a percentage of total household debt fell slightly to 2.97%.

We will be further developing this analysis over the coming months, and providing you with a deeper understanding of the New Zealand payments market. Keep an eye out for future MasterCard Papers.

MCW RBNZ Data Analysis (pdf)

ENDS