Hong Kong new-to-credit market tread path to recovery

The city reported 127,000 NTC customers in 2021.

The number of new-to-credit (NTC) consumers in Hong Kong has not yet rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, according to a study by TransUnion.

This presents an opportunity for lenders to ramp up their acquisition strategies in this emerging segment of consumers, especially with Hong Kong having reopened its borders and more economic activities expected, the American-based consumer credit reporting agency said in a report.

Hong Kong reported approximately 127,000 new-to-credit consumers in 2021. Whilst this is higher than the 106,000 NTC customers in 2020, it is much lower than the over 200,000 NTC customers in 2019, or before the pandemic struck.

Majority of Hong Kong’s NTC consumers are adults who recently left school or entered the workforce, with 53% being Gen Z and 25% being Millennials, the study found.

In terms of delinquency rates, NTC consumers in Hong Kong have a much higher delinquency rate than established credit-served customers (0.4% vs 0.2% for prime; 1.3% vs 0.8% for near prime). 

Overall, consumer delinquency rates are much lower in Hong Kong than other regions. For example, non-prime credit card delinquency for near prime in Canada has a delinquency rate of 1.8%; Colombia at 2.5%; India at 1.4%; and the United States at 3.4%.

Almost 9 in 10, or 88% of Hong Kong NTC consumers have credit cards as their first financial product when entering the credit market.