Credit card delinquency rates continued their uptick for all six major US card issuers in July, and bank executives expect card net charge-off rates to follow a similar trend during the back half of the year as part of anticipated credit normalization.

The average 30-plus-days credit card delinquency rates for American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc., Discover Financial Services and JPMorgan Chase & Co. was 1.17% in July, up from 1.13% in June and up 37 basis points from a year ago, data from the companies' regulatory filings showed.

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Delinquencies continue uptick

Of the six major card issuers tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, Capital One registered the biggest year-over-year increase in 30-plus-days delinquency in July, at 55 basis points; followed by Citigroup, up 42 basis points; then Discover Financial, up 41 basis points.

American Express posted the lowest year-over-year rise in its 30-plus-days delinquency rate of 21 basis points, followed by JPMorgan, with 23 basis points.

Charge-offs to follow uptrend

Four of the six major card issuers — Bank of America, Citigroup, Discover and JPMorgan — recorded sequentially lower net charge-off rates, while only American Express and Capital One posted higher net charge-off rates in July than in June.

However, all six card issuers booked higher net credit losses year over year.

The group's average net loss rate for July was 1.66%, up 63 basis points from a year ago, with Capital One logging the biggest year-over-year jump of 100 basis points.

"Our charge-offs are still a bit below their 2019 levels. But based on what we see in our delinquencies, we think they'll get back there in the next few months," Capital One President and CEO Richard Fairbank forecast during the company's second-quarter earnings call.

In line with expectations, net credit losses in cards should continue to normalize in the remainder of the year and reach normalized levels by year-end, Citigroup CFO Mark Mason said, according to the bank's second-quarter earnings call transcript.

"But again, all of this is tied into how we've calculated our reserves; the delinquencies that we're seeing," Mason said.

Yields up

Portfolio yield closed mixed for the six card issuers in July month over month, with American Express, Bank of America and JPMorgan posting lower yield rates, and Capital One, Citigroup and Discover reporting higher yield rates than in June.

Yet all six issuers continued to enjoy higher portfolio yield rates on a year-over-year basis. The group's average portfolio yield for July rose 210 basis points from a year ago to 24.19%.

Access data on credit card master trust yields, net charge-offs and delinquencies in Excel format.