(Australia) – Diners Club charge card usage in Australia is falling, with accounts for the Citibank unit in Australia showing a drop of 20 percent in “turnover” during 2002 to A$4.3 billion from A$5.4 billion in 2001, although operating profit climbed.Pre-tax profit climbed five percent to A$39.0m during the December 2002 year over the A$37.2m for the corresponding year, with net profit climbing eight percent to A$28.0m.
Charge card receivables, however, dropped a sizeable 17.8 percent to A$462 million in 2002, generating a 13.5 percent fall in revenues to A$148m, consisting mostly of merchant and card holder fees, as opposed to interest income given Diners does not provide revolving credit facilities.