166,284 Credit Cardholders in Sri Lanka were placed on the Credit Information Bureau’s (CRIB) blacklist with Rs.16 billion in arrears by the end of Q12021, CRIB data showed.
Defaulted Credit Cards where the payment is in arrears for 90 days or more rose by 5.4 percent in the quarter compared to the Q12020 and the previous quarter, after contracting in the Q42020.
Since the beginning of the pandemic over 25,000 credit cards have gone into CRIB’s default list, reflecting a Rs 4 billion rise in defaulted transaction value.
The Defaulted Transaction Value in the quarter rose by over Rs. 1.5 billion or 11.1 percent from a year ago.
The number of new credit cards issued in the quarter declined by 2.3 percent to 68,880, when compared to the corresponding period of 2020. At end of Q12021, there were 1.94 million active credit cards in use in the country.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) last august imposed maximum Interest rates on credit card advances to 18 percent per annum as the interest rates remained rigid at around 30 percent despite the low-rate envioment.
At end of the first quarter of 2021, 14 Licensed Commercial Banks and 3 Licensed Finance Companies had been licensed to engage in the credit card business.