Mortgage drives credit applications up, non- performing loans remain stable

Published Date: Friday March 31st, 2017

Phnom Penh, November 22nd, 2016

In its latest Consumer Credit Index – released on November 22nd   – Credit Bureau Cambodia communicates on credit evolution for Q3 2016. After a slowdown in Q2, the number of credit applications experienced a renewed growth, while the consumer credit performance and the non- performing loans remained stable.

Consumer Credit Application: represents the intention of consumers to acquire credit in terms of personal finance, credit card or mortgage

After a slight slowdown in Q2, credit applications have started to increase again during the latest quarter, both in number (+24% quarterly evolution vs. -25% in Q2) and in value (+30% vs. -23% in Q2). The growth is mainly driven by the high increase of mortgage applications (+75%) throughout the whole Kingdom, especially in the Tonle Sap (+131%) and Plateau (+109%) regions. The amount of credit card applications – in value – is the only number declining (-15%), while the number of credit card applications keeps growing (+33% in Q3, +49% in Q2).

Consumer Credit Performance: indicates the situation of actual consumer loans as of the reporting quarter

The number of accounts keeps increasing at a steady rhythm with a 5.31% quarterly growth in Q3. The outstanding balance ($3.06B) grew twice as fast as it did during Q2, but the distribution among the different types of loan remains the same: the balance is almost equally divided between personal finance and mortgage, while credit card loans represent a negligible part of the total (0.74%).

Consumer Credit Quality: reflects the ability of debtors to meet their scheduled payments

Non-performing loans – loans for which the debtor has not been able to meet its scheduled payments for more than 30 days (NPL 30) – still represent a small percentage of the total outstanding balance (1,48%). The growth of NPL30 is particularly low in the Coastal region (+3%), allowing a total evolution of +13% instead of +29% in Q2. The number of borrowers who have contracted loans in multiple institutions has declined: from 19% of borrowers in Q2 to 18.55% in Q3.

“On a yearly basis, we tend to see credit growth periods in Q1 and Q3, and slowdowns in Q2 and Q4.”, comments Mr Sothearoath Oeur, Head of Business Development at the CBC. “This could partly be explained by the numerous holidays in Q2 and Q4 that tend to slowdown credit growth”.