Brazil’s January Credit Data Show Card-Rate Split as Delinquencies Reach 2017 High

Overview

• Revolving credit-card interest fell to 424.5% annualized, while installment-card rates rose to 194.9%, lifting the overall card average to 89.6% a year.
• Delinquency on free-term loans climbed to 5.5% in January, the highest since August 2017, as bank spreads in free credit widened to 34.3 percentage points.
• New loan concessions dropped 18.9% versus December, and the total credit stock slipped 0.2% to about R$7.115 trillion.
• The average rate on new credit contracts reached 32.8% a year, with the household average at 61% a year and corporate credit at 25.2% in free resources.
• BC said the towering annualized card rates reflect monthly-to-annual extrapolation rather than breaches of the legal 100% cap, while 12‑month credit growth held near 10.1% without a clear trend change.