Capital One Charge-Offs Fall in February
McLEAN, VA. (
) --
Capital One's
(COF) - Get Report
credit card charge-off rate fell in February for the first time in at least five months.
The credit card company said in a filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
on Monday that loans written off last month fell by 22 basis points to 10.19%, or $494 million, compared to January metrics. Capital One's domestic card loans held for investment at the end of February totaled $57.42 billion, down roughly 3% from the prior month as Capital One seeks to shed bad loans.
Loans that were 30 days or more delinquent fell by 29 basis points in February to 5.51%, or $3.16 billion, Capital One said.
Auto loans also had improved metrics last month. Capital One's auto loan net charge-off rate dropped to 2.50% from 4.27% in January. Loans more than 30 days late also fell significantly to 7.99% from 9.61%, the filing said.
Capital One's charge-offs on international cards also fell by nearly 100 basis points to 8.07% in February, however delinquency rates on international cards at least 30 days past due rose 2 basis points to 6.68% last month.
Monthly credit card delinquency data from
American Express
(AXP) - Get Report
as well as delinquency data on securitized loans from the large credit card issuing banks
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM) - Get Report
and
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
and
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
will likely be filed later today.
Credit card rival
Discover Financial (DFS) - Get Report
said after the markets closed on Thursday that it would post a loss for the firm's fiscal first quarter on higher reserve marks.
However, the increase in loan loss reserves is not due to any systemic worsening of credit quality but rather a change in Discover's methodology in which it now covers the equivalent of 12 months of losses as opposed to nine months previously.
Capital One's shares were rising 0.9% to $40.23 in early action. Discover and American Express shares were also up shortly after the opening bell.
--
Written by Laurie Kulikowski in New York.








