Capital One credit card defaults rise in March

Capital One Financial Corp's U.S. credit-card defaults rose in March in a sign that consumers may still be under stress.

In a regulatory filing, Capital One said the annualized net charge-off rate -- debts the company believes it will never collect -- for U.S. credit cards rose to 10.87 percent in March from 10.19 percent in February.

However, accounts at least 30 days delinquent -- an indicator of future loan losses - declined to 5.30 percent from 5.51 percent.

For U.S. auto loans, Capital One's charge-off rate was 2.10 percent in March, down from 2.50 percent in February, and the delinquency rate fell to 7.58 percent from 7.99 percent.

In credit card international operations, including Canada and Britain, the charge-off rate increased to 9.40 percent from 8.07 percent, but the delinquency rate was lower at 6.39 percent from 6.68 percent.

Capital One routinely kicks off the monthly reporting of credit card charge-offs. JPMorgan Chase & Co , Bank of America Corp , Citigroup Inc , American Express Co and Discover Financial Services are expected to report the monthly performance of their credit card portfolios later on Thursday.

Capital One is the third-largest U.S. issuer of Visa -branded credit card and the fifth-largest issuer of MasterCard -branded credit cards.

Capital One shares closed at $46.06 on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)