Table Of Contents

OVERVIEW
Catalyst
Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Global review
Four of the top five issuers are now based in China
Regional comparison
Asia Pacific has overtaken North America
Key markets by region
There are opportunities on offer both near and far
Consumer spending behavior
Cards are increasingly popular worldwide

GLOBAL REVIEW
Four of the top five issuers are now based in China
Overview
BRIC based issuers are also growing rapidly
Agricultural Bank of China has the most payment cards in issue globally
Chinese issuers dominate the global pay now market
US based issuers remain the largest credit card issuers
Crédit Agricole remains the largest charge and deferred debit card issuer
Santander Group grew by 63.9% in 2010
Visa, China UnionPay, and MasterCard are the dominant payment card schemes globally
Visa accounts for the highest value of transactions globally
Visa cards handle over half of global transactions by volume

REGIONAL COMPARISON
Asia Pacific has overtaken North America
Overview
Sizing the global payment card market
Macroeconomics
The GDP of Asia Pacific has overtaken that of North America
Asia Pacific has the largest regional population by far
Asia Pacific has the lowest unemployment rate but highest total number of unemployed consumers
North America and Western Europe have the highest household incomes
Size and performance of the global payment card market
Asia Pacific has by far the most payment cards in issue of any region
High growth markets are displacing developed European countries within the top 10 by number of cards in issue
Asia Pacific has overtaken North America as having the highest card expenditure
US consumers spend the most on payment cards
Western European consumers use their cards the most frequently
The US makes the most card transactions by volume
Card penetration rates vary significantly around the world
The US dwarfs all other countries’ outstanding balances

KEY MARKETS BY REGIONTHERE ARE OPPORTUNITIES ON OFFER BOTH NEAR AND FAR
Regional reviews
North America: it’s not all doom and gloom
Major competitor developments
Asia Pacific is the focus of global cards growth
Latin America is a region of promising growth
Western Europe remains developed and stable
Central and Eastern Europe is home to both boom and bust
Middle East and Africa remains a region of huge potential

CONSUMER SPENDING BEHAVIOR
Cards are increasingly popular worldwide
Overview
There is a global shift towards the POS away from ATM cash withdrawals
Frequency of use at ATMs and POS terminals has seen a slight increase at the POS
Balances outstanding and revolve rates around the world are highly divergent
South Koreans repay the highest proportion of their outstanding balances each month
Global merchant spending by country is led by Airlines and hotels in most countries

APPENDIX
Supplementary data
Definitions
(Untitled sub-section)
Methodology
Cards and payments database
Datamonitor’s Financial Services Consumer Insight Survey has been expanded, providing improved, new, and valuable insight
Forecasting methodology
Further reading
Ask the analyst
Disclaimer

List Of Tables

Table: Top 10 issuing banking groups by total number of all cards
Table: Top 10 issuing banking groups by total number of pay now cards
Table: Top 10 issuing banking groups by total number of credit cards
Table: Top 10 issuing banking groups by total number of charge and deferred debit cards
Table: Number of cards by type and region
Table: Top 10 countries by total number of all card types in issue
Table: Top 10 countries by total value of payment card transactions
Table: Top 10 countries by total number of payment card transactions
Table: Top 10 countries by outstanding balances (total and per capita)
Table: Global payment card expenditure at ATMs and the POS
Table: Global payment card frequency of use at ATMs and the POS
Table: Outstanding balances per card and revolve rates by country
Table: Credit card repayment rates by country
Table: Top three POS merchant categories by country

List Of Figures

Figure: Agricultural Bank of China is the largest card issuer in the world with 409 million cards
Figure: Seven of the top 10 global pay now card issuers are based in China
Figure: JPMorgan Chase in the largest global issuer of credit cards with 110.5 million in 2010
Figure: Crédit Agricole is the largest issuer of charge and deferred debit cards with 7.9 million
Figure: Bank of America saw a 12.8% decline in card numbers in 2010
Figure: China UnionPay is the most issued card scheme in the world with 2.4 billion cards
Figure: Visa-branded cards accounted for 40% of the global market by value in 2010
Figure: Visa-branded cards are used for more than one in two transactions around the world
Figure: Asia Pacific has overtaken North America as the region with the largest GDP
Figure: The population of the Middle East and Africa grew by 2% in 2010
Figure: The Asia Pacific region has the lowest unemployment rate of 5.1%
Figure: North America and Western Europe have the highest average household incomes
Figure: The Asia Pacific region has more cards in issue than the rest of the world combined
Figure: China is the largest single payment card market in the world with 2.4 billion cards
Figure: Western Europe has the highest average turnover per card of $6,081
Figure: The US is the most valuable payment card market with $4.6tn in annual transactions
Figure: Cards in Western Europe are used the most frequently with 66.6 transactions per year
Figure: Payment cards in France are used the most frequently with 144.1 transactions per year
Figure: Japan has the highest card penetration rate in the world at 5.8 cards per person
Figure: The total outstanding balance on credit cards in the US totals $800bn
Figure: The Canadian payment card market grew at a CAGR of 6.2% during 2006–10
Figure: Bank of Montreal is the largest card issuer in Canada with 20 million cards in issue
Figure: Pay now cards are used fairly similarly in Canada and the US
Figure: Pay later cards are currently more popular in Canada than in the US
Figure: TD Bank Group performed well in 2010 with a 21.5% increase in card numbers
Figure: Vietnam has the fastest growing payment card market in the Asia Pacific region
Figure: ICBC’s cards were used for $519.5bn of transactions in 2010
Figure: Pay now cards are used for an average of 218.8 transactions per year in New Zealand
Figure: Japan has the highest pay later card penetration rate in Asia Pacific
Figure: State Bank of India saw a 31% increase in card numbers during 2010
Figure: Brazil is by far the largest payment card market in Latin America with 401.6 million cards in issue
Figure: Government-owned Banco do Brasil is the largest card issuer in Brazil with 87.9 million cards
Figure: Peru currently has the lowest pay now card penetration in Latin America
Figure: Pay later cards are most frequently used in Argentina with 77.8 transactions per year
Figure: Santander saw growth of 46% in its card numbers in Latin America in 2010
Figure: The Netherlands saw its card market contract by a CAGR of 1.2% during 2006–10
Figure: Swedbank is the largest issuer of payment cards in Sweden with 3.5 million in 2010
Figure: Norway has the highest pay now penetration rate in Western Europe at 2.6 cards per person
Figure: Denmark has the lowest penetration rate of pay later cards at 0.3 cards per person
Figure: Deutsche Bank Gruppe saw the largest growth in card numbers in 2010 at 83%
Figure: Russia is the largest payment card market in Central and Eastern Europe
Figure: Vakiflar Bankasi is the largest payment card issuer in Turkey with 19 million cards
Figure: Croatia has the highest penetration of pay now cards, but low usage levels
Figure: Slovenia has the highest turnover per pay later card of $6,776
Figure: Turkiye Halk Bankasi’s payment card numbers grew by 44.8% to 7.1 million in 2010
Figure: South Africa’s payment card market is the largest in the Middle East and Africa
Figure: Absa is the largest issuer of payment cards in South Africa with 13.1 million in 2010
Figure: Kenya and Morocco have fewer than 0.2 payment cards in issue per person
Figure: Banque Populaire du Maroc saw its card numbers grow by 37.6% in 2010
Figure: 61.5% of global transactions by value were made at POS terminals in 2010
Figure: Growth in card numbers largely matched growth in transactions between 2006 and 2010
Figure: The average outstanding balance per credit card in Australia is $2,155
Figure: 86.4% of credit card holders in South Korea pay off their balance in full each month
Figure: Airline and hotel payments are generally the highest value merchant category across all card types