A Ray of Light in Consumer Credit
In the past few weeks I've written about first- and second-trust mortgages at the money centers. In this column I will address credit card debt being extended to individuals. This is a bit more complicated, as we must consider the money centers Citibank (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC), as well as the consumer credit companies Capital One (COF), Discover Financial (DFS) and American Express (AXP). Wells Fargo (WFC) is the seventh-largest holder, but it still carries a much smaller balance than the top six listed above, so I will not address here.
The first thing to note is that the money centers dominate this market, just as they do the mortgage market. There are about $7.5 trillion worth of loans, of all types, being held by all banks. About 8.75% of these, or $650 billion worth, are credit card loans....472 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
There’s no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.
Already a Subscriber? Please login.
