Aprolonged period of stagnation continues to define Greece’s credit card market,
Aprolonged period of stagnation continues to define Greece’s credit card market, despite banks rolling out new offers and strengthening incentives to encourage their use in everyday transactions.
Household credit card balances now stand at levels even lower than those recorded before Greece adopted the euro. According to the latest data from the Bank of Greece, outstanding credit card balances amounted to 2.26 billion euros at the end of last Oct., marking the fifth consecutive year below the 2.5 billion euros threshold.
This represents a dramatic reversal from the past. At the time of the euro’s introduction, credit card debt stood at about 3.7 billion euros, before soaring to nearly 10 billion euros by early 2009 during the retail banking boom. Loose lending and a surge in consumer spending fuelled the rise, while interest rates often above 15% magnified debts when the crisis hit.
Banks initially sought to contain the problem by restructuring card debt into instalment loans, tightening credit criteria and cutting limits on active cards. These measures reduced balances to about 5 billion euros by 2015.
The decisive clean-up, however, came between 2019 and 2021, when the four systemic banks shed almost all non-performing credit
Content Original Link:
Read Full article form Original Source OIKONOMIKOS TAXYDROMOS
" target="_blank">Read Full article form Original Source OIKONOMIKOS TAXYDROMOS
