Card Issuer Profits Soared in Third Quarter

The nearby table indicates that many card issuers had a stellar third quarter this year with record or near-record profits. The table displays card-related net income (in millions of dollars) for a cross section of issuers. Citigroup retained the top position in the industry in terms of receivables and total profits with $95.6 billion of managed card receivables and $476 million in card-related net income. MBNA took the second place slot with $85 billion in receivables and $369 billion in profits. Interestingly, Metris Companies had impressive card-related net income of $131.5 million on a much smaller cardholder base of $8.5 billion in receivables and 4.4 million accounts.

Even Bank One's troubled First USA card division had third quarter profits of $177 million following huge losses in the previous quarters this year. However, the company noted that most of the improvement was due to the drop in bankruptcy filings over the past year, a trend which may not continue much beyond the current quarter.

Source: Credit Card News