Payment delinquency in Singapore edged up by 2.51 ppt

Downward trend in promptness is more evident.

According to Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau, within the context of challenging economic conditions and the promise of a decisive recovery still remaining a low possibility, payment performance has moderated downwards for the first quarter of 2013, following two consecutive quarters of marked improvements. 

Last quarter, payment defaults have increased slightly reaching its new peak within the past year. While overall payment promptness has held steady above the 50 per cent mark, the downward trend has become more evident and visible in the first quarter.

According to Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau (SCCB)’s latest payment trend analysis, payment promptness has declined marginally by 1.21 percentage points quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) from 51.59 per cent to 50.38 percent.

However, the proportion of prompt payments was still better compared to a year ago for the very same quarter.

A year-on-year (y-o-y) analysis revealed a substantial 5.82 percentage point increase from 44.56 percentage points to 50.38 percentage points.

Meanwhile, payment delays continued on the path of increase as slow payments rose by 2.51 percentage points q-o-q, from 40.99 percentage points to 43.50 percentage points.

This stands in some level of contrast compared to Q4 2012 when payment defaults increased by a mere 0.79 percentage points.

Reaching its new peak over the past year, slow payments have increased by 1.58 percentage points from 41.92 percentage points y-o-y.

The downward trend in payment promptness is also being reflected in the proportion of partial payments made in the last quarter.

According to SCCB, partial payments have declined by 1.8 percentage points from 7.92 per cent to 6.12 per cent. This marks the lowest proportion of partial payments made in the history of SCCB’s payment analysis.