Asset Quality
Credit Card Loans
Also known as Credit Cards
Credit Card Loans are unsecured revolving consumer loans accessed via a card network (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover). The asset class generates the highest yields and highest charge-off rates of any major US bank product.
How is Credit Card Loans calculated?
Credit Card Loans include all balances on consumer credit card accounts, whether transactor balances that are paid off monthly or revolving balances that carry forward. Some banks include private-label cards (store cards serviced by the bank); others report them separately.
Why does Credit Card Loans matter?
Credit cards are the highest-yielding major bank asset (15-25% APR on revolving balances) and the highest-loss asset (3-7% annualized charge-offs in normal times, 6-10%+ in recessions). The economics depend on a small set of dominant issuers: Chase, Capital One (which acquired Discover in May 2025), Citi, Bank of America, American Express and Wells Fargo together hold over 70% of US credit-card receivables.
How do you interpret Credit Card Loans?
For most community and regional banks, credit-card loans are zero or trivial. Credit-card loans above 5% of total loans indicates a meaningful card business; above 30% indicates the bank is a card-led institution (Capital One, Synchrony).
What do Credit Card Loans levels indicate?
| Range | Label | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5% of loans | Light | Typical for non-card banks. |
| 5–15% | Active | Established card business; not core. |
| 15–30% | Major | Card-focused bank within a diversified portfolio. |
| > 30% | Card-led | Card-dominant business model. |
Worked example
Frequently asked
Why are credit-card charge-offs so much higher than other lending?
Because the loans are unsecured. There is no collateral to repossess on default. The lender's recovery is whatever it can collect from the borrower's other resources. The high yield is the compensation for this loss profile.
Are credit-card loans risk-weighted higher?
Yes. Under Basel III standardized approach, credit-card loans receive a 100% risk weight versus 50% for residential mortgages, recognizing both the unsecured nature and historical loss rate.
How did the 2024 CFPB credit-card late-fee rule affect issuers?
It did not take effect. The rule would have cut the safe-harbor late fee to $8 for the largest issuers, but a federal court stayed it before its May 2024 effective date and vacated it on April 15, 2025.
Sources
- FFIEC Call Report Schedule RC-C, Line 6.a
- Federal Reserve G.19: Consumer Credit Outstanding
See Credit Card Loans across 4,193 US banks
BankRegReports ranks every FDIC-insured institution by credit card loans, refreshed each quarter as new FFIEC filings land.