Citigroup’s Credit Card Delinquencies & Charge-Offs Rise in November

In a recent SEC filing, Citigroup Inc.’s C subsidiary, Citibank N.A., disclosed a rise in its credit card trust delinquency and net charge-off rates for November 2024 compared with October 2024. Nonetheless, both the metrics remained under their pre-pandemic levels despite the recent uptick.

For the period ending Nov. 25, 2024, the Citibank Credit Card Issuance Trust reported a delinquency rate of 1.53%, increasing marginally from 1.52% in October 2024 and 1.47% in the same period last year. The current figure remains below the 1.58% recorded in November 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Similarly, the Credit Card Issuance Trust’s net charge-off rate rose to 2.40% in November 2024 from 2.36% in October 2024. However, the figure still shows an improvement from 2.53% recorded in the year-ago period. It is also lower than the November 2019 level of 2.57%.

At the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference held on Dec. 10, 2024, Citigroup’s Chief Financial Officer, Mark Mason, stated that the rise in delinquency and charge-off rates is mainly attributable to the delayed losses from customers who borrowed during the COVID period. These losses are now showing up but are still within the company’s expected range. Mason also considers the current unemployment rate in the United States as one of the major factors, contributing to the rise in delinquency and charge-off rates.

Citibank’s Credit Card Lending Sees Modest Growth

Lending activity within Citibank’s credit card trust showed a modest rise due to an increase in consumer spending, higher reliance on credit cards for daily expenses and the issuance of more credit cards with attractive benefits.

Principal receivables in the trust grew to $21.8 billion by the end of the period (November 2024), up from $21.7 billion at the start of the period (October 2024), indicating steady consumer borrowing activity.

Citigroup’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank

Shares of Citigroup have gained 17.6% over the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 21.7%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Currently, C carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Finance Stocks Worth Considering

Some better-ranked stocks from the finance space are BGC Group, Inc. BGC and Raymond James Financial, Inc. RJF, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BGC’s 2024 earnings has remained unchanged over the past seven days. In the past six months, shares of BGC have risen 13.4%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RJF’s 2024 earnings has moved marginally upward over the past seven days. Its shares have risen 34.8% in the past six months.