More US Consumers Are Falling Behind On Payments

• According to executives at the biggest U.S. banks, consumers are starting to fall behind on their credit card and loan payments as the economy softens, although they said delinquency levels were still modest.
• Profits at Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup Inc. beat analyst forecasts as lending giants earned a windfall from rising interest rates. However, industry chiefs warned that the strength would tail off this year as a recession looms and customer delinquencies climb.
• "We've seen some consumer financial health trends gradually weakening from a year ago," Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Mike Santomassimo said on a conference call Friday to discuss its first quarter results.
• Citigroup made larger provisions for credit losses even as it brought in more revenue from clients' interest payments on credit cards. Delinquency rates were rising as anticipated, but still stood below normal levels in the bank's "very high quality" loan portfolio, said Mark Mason, the bank's finance chief.
• "We have tightened credit standards specifically as a result of the current market environment in cards, we continue to calibrate our credit underwriting based on what we're seeing based on macroeconomic trends," Mason said.

(Source: Reuters)