Tag Archives: American Express

Top Credit Card Issuers’ 4Q13 Financials: Takeaways and Implications

A scan of 4Q13 and full-year 2013 financials for 13 leading U.S. credit card issuers revealed the following trends in outstandings, volume and credit quality:

Outstandings

Average outstandings continued to decline y/y for the top 4 issuers, but rose in other issuer categories:

  • Although outstandings for the largest issuers continue to decline, there is evidence that these issuers are now at a inflection point, where growth in new vintages is starting to exceed declines in run-off portfolios.  Chase claimed that it reached this inflection point in the second quarter of 2013, and expects to generate moderate outstandings growth this year.  Bank of America is pointing to strong growth in account production, with 1 million new accounts opened in each of the past two quarters.
  • Discover and American Express both increased outstandings by 4% y/y; this led to net interest income growth, of 10% and 8%, respectively.
  • Wells Fargo grew average outstandings 8%, as it grew new accounts by 29% y/y .  Credit card penetration of Wells Fargo retail banking households rose from 27% in 1Q11 to 37% in 4Q13.

As there is growing consensus that the economy will grow robustly in 2014, improved consumer confidence should translate into increased credit appetite, which issuers will look to meet with targeted campaigns and pricing (on introductory rates rather than go-to APRs).  In addition, in recent years, issuers have focused on higher FICOs (which we discussed in a recent blog), but now may look to develop campaigns, product and pricing for other segments.

Volume

The 7 issuers reporting annual volume data generated an increase of 8% between 2012 and 2013.  Growth in volume continues to outstrip outstandings, as debt-wary consumers continue to see the credit card as more of a payment than a borrowing tool.

  • In general, issuers grew volume from a combination of new account production and increased existing cardholder spending.
  • American Express’ 9% growth was boosted by a 12% increase in small business spending, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

In 2014, issuers will be looking to benefit from growth in consumer spending as the economic recovery takes shape, so we should expect a continuation of tiered earnings in rewards programs, as well as communications and offers targeted at key stages of the cardholder life cycle (card acquisition, activation, retention and ongoing card usage).

Credit Quality

Charge-off rates for many issuers are at or below historic lows, with all issuers reporting 4Q13 rates below 4%.

  • In the aftermath of the financial crisis, some of the leading issuers experienced huge spikes in their charge-off rates.  The charge-off rate for Bank of America’s U.S. Card unit rose to more than 14% in the third quarter of 2009, while the rate for Citigroup’s Citi-Branded Cards-North America unit peaked at 10.78% in 2Q10.  The chart above shows that charge-off rates for these issuers have returned to normal levels.
  • Low charge-off rates—and the expectation that these rates will remain low—enable issuers to maintain reduced loan loss provisions.  This in turn boosts profitability even as issuers struggle to grow revenues.  Some of the leading issuers reported strong y/y declines in provisions in 4Q13, including Chase (-46%) and American Express (-27%).

As issuers push for outstandings growth in 2014, the expectation is that charge-off rates will rise.  However, there are indications that rises in charge-off rates will be moderate.  30+ day delinquency rates (leading indicator for charge-off rates) continue to fall.  In addition, the credit card sector has changed fundamentally in recent years; neither consumers nor issuers see credit cards want to return to the borrowing/lending culture that pertained prior to the financial crisis.

Banks Reducing Marketing Intensity

An analysis of 4Q13 and full-year 2013 financial results for the leading U.S. banks reveals that most are continuing to reduce their marketing spend.  This is being driven by both economic uncertainty as well as banks’ long-term desire to cut costs and maintain profitability as they struggle to generate revenue growth.

  • Of the 12 banks studied, 8 reduced marketing spend between 2012 and 2013, with 5 of these cutting budgets by more than 10%.

  • Taking a longer term view, 8 of the 12 banks increased their marketing expenditure between 2008—when the financial crisis hit—and 2013.

At first glance, this would imply that banks have ramping up their marketing spend in recent years.  However, many of these banks have changed dramatically during this period, mainly through acquisition.  For example, Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia, Chase bought Wamu, and PNC purchased both National City and RBC Bank.  So, to ensure that we are comparing like-with-like, we need to look at “marketing intensity”, which we define as the ratio of marketing spend to net revenue.

  • In 2013, there was a broad disparity in intensity for the various bank categories: highest marketing intensity (>8% of revenues) for branchless monolines, which have no branch networks and which are overwhelming focused on selling credit cards; lowest intensity for regionals (<2% of revenues); and megabanks tend to spend 2-3% of revenues on marketing, with the notable exception of Wells Fargo.  Capital One is a monoline/branch bank hybrid, with a branch network but also a continued high dependency on credit cards; this is reflected in the 6% of revenue it devotes to marketing, higher than traditional branch banks, but lower than monolines.

  • So, even though 8 of the 12 banks increased their marketing expenditure between 2008 and 2013, during this period, 9 of the 12 banks reduced their marketing intensity levels.  It is notable that the two “banks” with the highest marketing intensity—American Express and Discover—have both increased in intensity over the past five years.  On the other hand, the largest decline was recorded by Capital One, which has been transforming itself from its credit card monoline to full-service bank.

As there are now signs that economic recovery is gaining strength, increases in consumer and business confidence should translate into a greater demand for financial revenues and opportunities for banks to grow revenues.  However, the need for increased marketing investment to capture business growth will be battling against banks’ cost-cutting culture that has become in recent years.

Banks Cut Marketing Spending in Absence of Revenue Growth

EMI analyzed bank marketing data of 25 leading U.S. banks and found a 4% y/y decline in marketing expenditure for the first nine months of 2013.  During this period, marketing spending accounted for 2.6% of net revenues.

Our analysis finds that marketing expenditure levels and changes vary significantly by bank type .

  • Monolines: These banks are characterized as having a strong dependence on their credit card operations.  The three banks in this segment—American Express, Discover Financial and Capital One—allocated 7.8% of their revenues to marketing in the first 9 months of 2013.  Capital One’s spend levels are relatively lower, as it has transitioned over the past decade to be more like a full-service bank, with a network of 900+ branches.  The ‘monoline’ segment is also bucking the overall trend, with a 4% y/y rise in marketing spend.

  • National banks: These megabanks invest about 2% of revenues in marketing to promote their brands, support their extensive physical and virtual channels, and advertise their wide array of financial products and services.  As these banks (which include JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America) are under pressure to maintain profitability in a low/no growth environment, they reduced marketing spend 8% y/y.  Wells Fargo stands out, insofar as its marketing spend as a percentage of revenues is much lower than its peers, as it has traditionally focused its revenue-generating activities on its branch network.  However, Wells Fargo was the only one of these four national banks to report y/y marketing growth for the first three quarters of 2013.

  • Regional banks: The 18 regional banks analyzed by EMI allocated 1.6% of their revenues to marketing over the first 9 months of 2013.  Under pressure to cut costs and maintain profitability in the absence of revenue growth, these regional banks cut marketing budgets by 13%, led by large regionals like KeyBank (-31%) and SunTrust (-29%).

The extent to which banks ramp their marketing spend will be based on whether they see significant revenue growth opportunities, which in turn is dependent on economic growth.  And there are some positive signs in this regard, with the OECD projecting that U.S. GDP growth will rise from 1.7% in 2013 to 2.9% in 2014 and 3.4% in 2015.