Internet,consumer spending,and credit card balance: Evidence from US consumers

Utilizing the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances data, the present study aims to examine the role of the Internet in carrying a credit card balance among US households. The central question of this study is whether or not households with Internet access have more favorable attitudes toward incurring more credit card balance. This study further investigates whether education, income, gender, age, race, etc., make any differences in carrying credit card debt when households have access to the Internet. Our results with the Tobit model show that having access to the Internet increases the probability of carrying a positive credit card balance by 4% to 5% compared to those who do not have access to the Internet. This result does not apply to older Americans. Our results further indicate that education decreases the probability of carrying a positive credit balance for households that have access to the Internet, while income and liquid assets may have little positive effect on that probability. The results suggest that Internet leads to more debt, but education could alleviate that debt.     

互联网金融对商业银行信用卡业务影响的实证研究

基于上市商业银行2007~2013年信用卡业务数据,运用结构方程模型考量互联网金融对商业银行信用卡业务的影响,结果表明,互联网金融通过网络银行业务的中介作用,实现对信用卡业务的溢出效应,在一定程度上促进商业银行信用卡业务的发展,但互联网金融的替代效应却不显著。有鉴于此,商业银行应积极开拓互联网金融,加快其自身业务的发展。     

Foreclosure Delay and Consumer Credit Performance

The deep housing market recession from 2008 through 2010 was characterized by a steep rise in number of foreclosures. The average length of time from onset of delinquency through the end of the foreclosure process also expanded dramatically. Although most individuals undergoing foreclosure were experiencing serious financial stress, the extended foreclosure timelines enabled them to live in their homes without making mortgage payments until the end of the foreclosure process, thus providing temporary income and liquidity benefits from lower housing costs. This paper investigates the impact of extended foreclosure timelines on borrower performance with credit card debt. Our results indicate that a longer period of nonpayment of mortgage expenses results in higher cure rates on delinquent credit cards and reduced credit card balances. Thus, foreclosure process delays may have mitigated the impact of the economic downturn on credit card default—suggesting that improvement in credit card performance during the post-crisis period would likely be slowed by the removal of the temporary liquidity benefits as foreclosures reach completion.     

Credit CARD Act of 2009: What did banks do?

The Credit CARD Act of 2009 was intended to prevent practices in the credit card industry that lawmakers viewed as deceptive and abusive. Among other changes, the Act restricted issuers’ account closure policies, eliminated certain fees, and made it more difficult for issuers to change terms on credit card plans. Critics of the Act argued that because of the long lag between approval and implementation of the law, issuing banks would be able to take preemptive actions that might disadvantage cardholders before the law could take effect. Using credit bureau data as well as individual data from a survey of U.S. consumers, we test whether banks closed consumers’ credit card accounts or otherwise restricted access to credit just before the enactment of the CARD Act. Because the period prior to the enactment of the CARD Act coincided with the financial crisis and recession, causality in this case is particularly difficult to establish. We find evidence that a higher fraction of credit card accounts were closed following the Federal Reserve Board’s adoption of its credit card rules, but not between May 2009, when the CARD Act was signed, and when most of its provisions became law in February 2010. However, we do find evidence that banks deteriorated terms of credit card plans at a higher rate during this period, especially lowered the credit limits. Among the survey respondents whose bank accounts were closed during that period, account holders were much more likely to close their own credit card accounts than to have them closed by their card issuers.     

College students and credit card companies: Implications of attitudes

More knowledge and understanding is needed regarding the mechanisms influencing college student attitudes toward credit card companies and the behavior that students exhibit using credit cards. Prior literature in the area has been sparse. The current article is an attempt to fill the gap in existing literature. Using survey data, we try to find the determinants of college student attitude toward credit card companies and the responsible use of credit cards. Our findings indicate that a strong positive link exists between student attitude toward credit card companies and responsible credit behavior. Two distinct groups of students are identified – one with a positive attitude toward credit card companies and positive credit use behaviors; the other with the opposing attitude and behavior. Reward cards, payment behavior, number of credit cards, modes of acquisition, awareness about credit card policies, purpose for using credit cards, impulsiveness and certain student characteristics are all indicated as variables that help discriminate between the two different student groups. Our findings have implications for both higher education institutions and credit card firms.     

The cost of being late? The case of credit card penalty fees

This paper is the first in the literature to examine the determinants of US credit card penalty fees. Many critics of credit card fees – including a number of US Senators – have argued that credit card penalty fees reflect banks’ market share. Using a unique data set we find that fees are increasing in customer risk which supports the position of defenders of penalty fees, such as banks. However, our finding that fees are increasing in a bank's market share is consistent with the concerns expressed by politicians and regulators. We also find card penalty fees are direct substitutes for card interest rates.     

Additional Credit for Liquidity-Constrained Individuals: High-Interest Consumer Credit in Korea

We find that the delinquency probability on formal sector debts of private loan borrowers in Korea increases from 2.4% to 20% in the first year after the borrowing and to 32% in the second year. This increase happens despite private loan borrowers trying to rebuild their financial health by reducing formal sector debts, credit card cash service balances, and credit card purchases during the post-borrowing period. This limits the possibility of moral hazard driving the results. Private loan amounts are positively associated with the delinquency probability after controlling other commonly used variables, suggesting that they contain additional information on the worsening financial situation of an individual.     

基于金融压力指数的金融系统性风险测度及影响因素

基于CRITIC赋权法构建中国金融压力指数,以此衡量中国金融系统性风险,并对其影响因素进行分析.研究结果显示:样本期间内,中国金融压力指数呈阶段性变化特征,其中2007-2010年是中国金融压力指数最大时期.国内生产总值指数对中国金融压力指数产生负影响,抑制中国金融压力指数上升;银行信贷余额、信贷膨胀率等其它变量对中国金融压力指数产生显著正影响,促使中国金融压力指数的上升.     

The impact of wealth on financial mistakes: Evidence from credit card non-payment

Recent research finds that poorer individuals make financial mistakes when the decisions are difficult and rare. We examine who makes financial mistakes involving decisions that are easier and more frequent – specifically, the inadvertent failure to pay monthly credit card balances when sufficient funds are available. On the one hand poorer individuals may make such mistakes because of lower levels of financial literacy. Alternatively, richer individuals may make such mistakes because of the relatively lower costs to them of such mistakes. We examine this question using confidential individual credit card statement data, with over a million data points. Our results show that poorer individuals are more likely to make these mistakes, even after controlling for education.     

Are college students at greater risk of credit card abuse? Age,gender, materialism and parental influence on consumer response to credit cards

Two studies examine age, gender, parental influence and materialism effects on consumers’ credit card attitudes and behavior. Credit card commitment and use are greater among older adults than college students. Women outperform men in managing balances. Materialism heightens commitment, trust and use, but interferes with outstanding balance management. Parental influence can improve students’ commitment, trust, use and balance management while discouraging overuse. Parental influence also mediates materialism's effect on trust and balance management. Overall, findings show college students are not more vulnerable than older adults to credit card abuse, but that students who are female, materialistic and with less parental influence are at more risk.     

The Importance of Adverse Selection in the Credit Card Market: Evidence from Randomized Trials of Credit Card Solicitations

Analyzing unique data from multiple large‐scale randomized marketing trials of preapproved credit card solicitations by a large financial institution, we find that consumers responding to the lender's inferior solicitation offers have poorer credit quality attributes. This finding supports the argument that riskier type borrowers are liquidity or credit constrained and, thus, have higher reservation loan interest rates. We also find a more severe deterioration ex post in the credit quality of the booked accounts of inferior offer types relative to superior offers. After controlling for a cardholder's observable risk attributes, demographic characteristics, and adverse economic shocks, we find that cardholders who responded to the inferior credit card offers are significantly more likely to default ex post. Our results provide evidence on the importance of adverse selection effects in the credit card market.     

提高信用卡营销渠道效率研究

本文用经济学原理来分析信用卡营销渠道行为。文章指出销渠道是一串合约,分析渠道行为应该站在合约关系的角度上来分析。在目前各大国有商业银行内部市场没有充分建立这一市场环境下,这种合约关系主要表现为一种考核关系。目前信用卡市场上存在的大量的机会主义行为实质上是信息不对称下的败德行为。因为缺乏准确的考核信息,对一线客户经理的考核指标与集体的目标不一致,造成营销渠道效率降低。应通过更加精确的考核,来解决信息不对称的问题,提高渠道效率。本文给出了具有实质意义的方案来解决目前信用卡市场上存在的大量无效卡、睡眠卡的问题,并对该方案做了深入探讨。     

The Effects of State-Mandated Financial Education on College Financing Behaviors

Students entering college have limited financial experience while making complex borrowing decisions. This paper examines a policy lever that may improve these decisions: high school personal finance graduation requirements. We use a difference-in-difference strategy to determine their effects on financial aid decisions of incoming freshmen at 4-year institutions. Our results suggest financial education shifts students from high-cost to low-cost financing. The requirements increase aid applications and acceptance of federal loans, while decreasing the likelihood of holding credit card balances. Students from less affluent family backgrounds reduce their likelihoods of working and borrowers from more affluent backgrounds reduce private loan amounts.     

我国消费金融公司立法发展研究

在国外,消费金融公司已在个人消费信贷领域形成与商业银行的个人贷款业务、信用卡业务三分天下的局面。我国消费金融公司立法始于2OO9年,2O13年《消费金融公司试点办法》对消费金融公司主要出资人、业务经营和审慎监管等规定予以修改。为保障消费金融公司发展,我国应当提升立法位阶,制定《消费金融公司条例》,完善市场准入与退出机制,加强风险的内部控制,规范金融监管制度,强化借款人权益的法律保护。     

Checking for asymmetric default dependence in a credit card portfolio: A copula approach

Traditional credit risk models adopt the linear correlation as a measure of dependence and assume that credit losses are normally-distributed. However some studies have shown that credit losses are seldom normal and the linear correlation does not give accurate assessment for asymmetric data. Therefore it is possible that many credit models tend to misestimate the probability of joint extreme defaults.This paper employs Copula Theory to model the dependence across default rates in a credit card portfolio of a large UK bank and to estimate the likelihood of joint high default rates. Ten copula families are used as candidates to represent the dependence structure. The empirical analysis shows that, when compared to traditional models, estimations based on asymmetric copulas usually yield results closer to the ratio of simultaneous extreme losses observed in the credit card portfolio.Copulas have been applied to evaluate the dependence among corporate debts but this research is the first paper to give evidence of the outperformance of copula estimations in portfolios of consumer loans. Moreover we test some families of copulas that are not typically considered in credit risk studies and find out that three of them are suitable for representing dependence across credit card defaults.     

信用卡使用意向成因分析及其营销策略研究

本文在计划行为理论的基础上,使用结构方程模型等数理统计方法,探析了消费者信用卡使用意向的影响因素,进而建构了消费者信用卡使用意向模型。研究表明,计划行为理论中信用卡态度和知觉行为控制变量对消费者信用卡使用意向有重要影响。此外,研究还进一步将消费者信用卡态度区分为便利性态度、金钱与信用态度,实证研究显示便利性态度对信用卡使用意向有重要影响,这种区分是合理的和必要的。最后,研究提出实务建议,为中国信用卡业务的完善和发展提供决策依据。     

我国信用卡消费金融运行的案例研究

文章对我国信用卡消费金融采用案例研究的方法,采用银行大样本数据做了四个方面的因素分析。结果表明,一是宏观消费水平提高,特别是境外消费增加;二是收入来源主要是循环客户;三是逾期情况可控;四是宏观风险引起高度关注。文章最后给出了控制信用卡消费金融宏观风险的相关政策建议。     

Alternative Solutions to Underinvestment, Under Equity and Credit Rationing

We compare alternative solutions to underinvestment (UI) problems in firms subject to limited access to equity markets, interest ceilings, and constraints on the volume of debt. Collaterals (assets or compensating balances) and credit insurance ('regular' or 'outcome' insurance whereby the premium is paid at the end of the insurance period) are compared on the basis to their costs and their effective use of financial sources. It is shown that when there is no moral hazard problem, credit insurance is the most effective instrument. Otherwise, 'outcome' insurance program is the most effective one.     

Alternative Solutions to Underinvestment, Under Equity and Credit Rationing

We compare alternative solutions to underinvestment (UI) problems in firms subject to limited access to equity markets, interest ceilings, and constraints on the volume of debt. Collaterals (assets or compensating balances) and credit insurance ('regular' or 'outcome' insurance whereby the premium is paid at the end of the insurance period) are compared on the basis to their costs and their effective use of financial sources. It is shown that when there is no moral hazard problem, credit insurance is the most effective instrument. Otherwise, 'outcome' insurance program is the most effective one.     

Socialization and processing effects on comprehension of credit card advertisement disclosures

This study examines how college students comprehend the disclosures in a credit card advertisement through two main perspectives: socialization and processing. The results reveal that socialization and processing influence college students’ comprehension of the disclosures differently. In general, message involvement with the disclosures may enhance comprehension of the disclosures positively. However, college students’ experiences in using a credit card, enhanced by information search and number of credit cards owned, may have an inverse and negative effect on comprehension of the disclosures. While female students tend to exhibit more experiences in using a credit card, male and female students comprehend the disclosures to the same degree. This also suggests that female students may be more susceptible to ignore the disclosures, whereas an attended and informed card user provides the best defense against costly mistakes in neglecting important disclosures in credit card solicitations.