Credit market activity suggests caution: NCR

"Although seasonal factors may be contributing to overall credit performance, the NCR is mindful of the current trends and activity levels reflected in the statistics for this reporting quarter.

"This will be closely monitored to assess whether the increases evident in impaired performance categories is likely to prove consistent."

As at the end of December 2011, credit bureaus had records for 19.34 million credit-active consumers, an increase of 1.3% over the 19.10 million of the previous quarter. Consumers classified in good standing increased by 142,000, to 10.41 million consumers, an increase of 1.4% quarter on quarter and 5.2% year on year.

The number of consumers with impaired records rose by 100,000 to 8.93 million in the December 2011 quarter from the previous quarter.

The number of accounts increased by 2.3% from 66.03 million in the previous quarter to 67.53 million while the number of impaired accounts increased by 366,000 to 16.91 million compared with the previous quarter.

A total of 285.95 million enquiries were made on consumer credit records, an increase of 10.7% quarter on quarter and 61.9% year on year.

Enquiries initiated by consumers accounted for 14.88 million of all the enquiries, an increase of 11.4% quarter on quarter and 27.5% year on year.

Of the total enquiries made on consumer records, enquiries from banks and other financial institutions accounted for 77.2%, enquiries from retailers accounted for 5.1% and enquiries from telecommunication providers accounted for 7.9%.

Banks and other financial institutions' enquiries increased by 14.6% from the previous quarter, retailers increased by 8.4%, while telecommunication providers decreased by 5.5%.

The number of credit reports issued to consumers increased to 103,403. Of the total credit reports issued, 81.8% (84,561) were issued without charge, and the remaining 18.2% (18,842) were issued with charge.

There were 8,826 disputes lodged on information held on consumer credit records for the quarter ended December 2011, which was an increase of 24.8% quarter on quarter and a decrease of 40.5% year on year.

Quarter on quarter comparisons in this release refer to a comparison between the December 2011 and September 2011 quarters, while year on year refers to a comparison between the December 2011 and December 2010 quarters.