Asian Amex card debts minimal

Asian Amex card debts minimal

SINGAPORE (Reuters): American Express Co's (Amex's) exposure
to bad debts in its Asian credit card business is minimal, the
firm's top regional executive said yesterday.

"Our credit losses in most markets other than two markets are
actually better than last year at the present time," Vijay
Parekh, Amex Asia-Pacific-Australia president told Reuters.

He said Malaysian and Indonesian bad card debts had worsened
"about 15 percent on a year to date basis", but said the figure
of potential write-offs for credit and charge cards was small.

"Taking total billings, close to two to 2-1/2 percent level
will be a write off for those two countries," Parekh said, adding
that he expected losses to be contained at "no more than
US$500,000 combined".

Indonesia has been a focal point of an Asian economic crisis
that has seen the International Monetary Fund back rescue deals
to the region of more than US$100 billion since July 1997.

Amex announced group provisions of US$213 million in its 1998
first quarter results revealed in April, the bulk of which the
firm said was for its Asia-Pacific exposures.

American Express Bank had about US$3.7 billion outstanding in
loans and other exposure in the Asia-Pacific region on March 31,
compared to US$4.3 billion at the end of 1997.

Parekh said the company's card business in Indonesia was small
and was satisfied it had adequate underwriting and risk
management practices in place to ensure its exposure would remain
minimal, despite the company's active drive for new card business
in the crisis-hit Asian region.