5 U.S. General Purpose Cards 1Q 2020 vs. 1Q 20197-9 Top Merchant Acquirers in Europe Ranked by: Transactions
& Purchase Volume and Mastercard/Visa Transactions12 Top 25 Acquirers of Web Transactions in Europe
2 – 3 Fast Facts Management Changes
INSIDE CHARTS
Global Payments Gets Truist Credit Card Processing
The Total System Services (Tsys) business unit of Global Payments will handle credit card account processing services for Truist, the bank holding company formed by the 2019 merger of BB&T and
Aluminum Payment Cards
Anomatic has spent the last three years in research and development of its all-aluminum anodized AnoCard card. AnoCards, which are manufactured using 100% recyclable
Adflex B2B Digital Payment Processing
More than 3,000 companies use the Adflex multilingual, multicurrency (150+) platform to increase accounts payable and accounts receivable efficiencies between buyers and suppliers.
First Quarter Card Results in the U.S.
Consumer, small business, and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid cards carrying Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express brands issued in the U.S. as well as payments settled
Payment Industry’s Response to Covid-19—Part 3
Governments worldwide are taking steps to reopen their economies to retail commerce, manufacturing, and services as they address the global recession triggered by the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
On pages 10 and 11 we highlight actions taken in North and South America, Asia, and Europe taken by card and mobile payment companies to address the impact of Covid-19.
Investments & Acquisitions—April 2020Turn to page four for a list of 63 acquisitions and investments that occurred in 20 countries in April 2020. The U.S. led with 26 deals, followed by Europe with 18, Asia-Pacific with 11, Middle East-Africa with 5, Canada with 2, and Latin America with 1. Prior issues: 1173, 1171, 1169
SBERBANK
WORLDPAY
BARCLAYS
J.P. MORGAN
NETS
CREDIT AGRICOLE
WORLDLINE
CREDIT MUTUEL
‘19’18
‘19’18
‘19’18
‘19’18
‘19’18
‘19’18
‘19’18
‘19’18
20.61 14.37
9.67 8.70
7.34 7.00
4.62 3.75
4.42 3.58
3.94 3.61
3.87 3.48
3.86 3.61
Top Acquirers in EuropePurchase Transactions (Bil.)
FOR 49 YEARS, THE LEADING PUBLICATION COVERING PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE
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Top 45 Merchant Acquirers in EuropeA ranking of the 45 largest acquirers of Visa (including Electron) and Mastercard (including Maestro) credit, debit, and prepaid card payments from merchants in Europe based on transactions processed in 2019 is presented in the chart on pages 8 and 9. The chart above shows Europe’s eight largest merchant acquirers ranked by combined global brand (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, UnionPay, and JCB) payments acquired as well as four Europe-based domestic-market-only
FIS has launched FIS Digital Issuance, which lets financial institutions provide newly approved applicants with immediate mobile access to their credit and debit accounts. Avidia Bank is the first issuer to offer the service. FIS Digital Issuance also provides a same-day mobile replacement option for cardholders whose cards are lost, stolen, or compromised. Jim Johnson is Head of Payments and Wealth at FIS, [email protected], www.fisglobal.com. Todd Wood is AVP Digital Banking at Avidia Bank, t.wood@ avidiabank.com, www.avidiabank.com.
PAYA, an integrated payment provider that handles over $30 billion annually for over 100,000 customers, will be offered to clients of Healthfully, an enterprise healthcare service provider. Mark Engels is Chief Revenue Officer at Paya, [email protected], www.paya.com. Paul Viskovich is CEO at Healthfully, [email protected], www.healthfully.io/.
SECURETRUST, a division of Trustwave, has launched SecureTrust PCI Manager, a cloud-based platform that provides Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance validation and enhanced risk mitigation for acquiring banks and merchant service providers. It was designed for all self-assessing entities (Level 2 through Level 4). Michael Petitti is President at SecureTrust, [email protected], www.securetrust.com.
CLEARSALE has moved the hosting of its anti-fraud application to Microsoft Azure and to using the Azure SQL Database hyperscale tier. The move lets ClearSale, which has over 3,000 customers worldwide, streamline upgrades to new and existing applications. Rafael Lourenco is EVP and Partner at ClearSale US, [email protected], www.clear.sale.
LINKED2PAY, a risk management and payment technology provider, has launched CustomerConnect, which aims to eliminate late B2B invoice payments. CustomerConnect supports merchant accounts on card processing gateways including TSYS MultiPass/TransIT, Heartland Portico, First Data, NAB Velocity, and Authorize.Net. It also supports the linked2pay and Paya ACH gateways. Robert McShirley is CEO at linked2pay, [email protected], www.linked2pay.com.
ASURINT, provider of background checks used in the hiring process for both recruiters and candidates, has gone live with BillingPlatform’s fully automated, cloud-based billing services. Dennis Wall is CEO at BillingPlatform, [email protected], www.billingplatform.com. Brent Sisson is CFO at Asurint, [email protected], www.asurint.com.
VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS, and DIS-COVER have postponed increases in interchange and mer-chant fees until April 2021. Adjustments had been scheduled for July 2020. Amex, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover have also postponed the imposition of the EMV fuel pump liability shift from issuers to gasoline sellers.
CONFERMA PAY, provider of virtual card technology to corporations, has integrated Visa virtual cards in the Conferma Pay mobile app. Employees can make virtual card payments anywhere contactless payments are accepted. Purchases are captured in a single record, providing the commercial card program manager with visibility into an individual’s spending. Paper receipts or manually submitted expenses are eliminated. Kevin Phalen is SVP, Global Head at Visa Business Solutions, [email protected], www.visa.com. Simon Barker is CEO at Conferma Pay, simon.barker@ conferma.com, www.conferma.com.
COMPASS PLUS migrated Network International’s 12 issuer processor clients (banks) in Egypt from legacy infrastructures in 2019. Network International, a top third-party processor in the Middle East and North Africa, has used Compass Plus software for 14 years. Alexey Osipov is EVP & MEA Managing Director at Compass Plus, [email protected], www.compassplus.com. Hany Fekry is Managing Director, Egypt at Network International, [email protected], www.network.ae.
TRUSTONIC has provided KB Kookmin Bank (KB Bank), the largest bank in Korea with three million mobile custom-ers, with Trustonic Application Protection (TAP) to enable a simpler authentication process for the KB star banking app. Trustonic’s mobile application protection lets the bank provide faster and more secure digital banking services because it isolates authentication certificates in the hardware of smartphones. Dion Price is CEO at Trustonic, [email protected], www.trustonic.com.
DPO GROUP, a payment service provider to over 100,000 merchants in Africa, has expanded operations to include francophone countries Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. DPO is the largest PSP in South Africa. Eran Feinstein is CEO, [email protected], www.dpogroup.com.
UNIONPAY has expanded its online merchant acceptance in Europe with 10 partnerships, including Stripe, Santander, and Nexi. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, global online transaction volume at UnionPay has increased by 20%. Wei Zhihong is International Market Dir. & General Manager of Europe Branch, [email protected], www.unionpayintl.com.
FAST
FACT
S
Order Back Issues / Preview Upcoming Conferences / View Newsletter ArchiveVISIT US ONLINE AT WWW.NILSONREPORT.COM1
The World’s Top Card Issuers and Merchant Acquirers Now in its 12th edition, this 126-page report lists 1,109 card issuers in 117 countries grouped by region.
Our research report is available as a PDF and, for the first time, data tables are also available in Excel format. This much-requested update adds new possibilities for exploring our data.
As a Nilson Report subscriber, you will appreciate having our regional and worldwide figures in one reference document. You will also get the following (not published in the newsletter):
• Top 300 Issuers Worldwide by Country (ranked by purchase volume)
• Top Merchant Acquirers Worldwide (ranked by purchase volume)
• Hundreds of additional listings: Issuers by Region and Country (more than the top 50) Credit vs. Debit Issuers by Region by Country
Order online, or contact our subscription manager ([email protected]) to inquire about pricing.
The World’s Top Card Issuers and Merchant Acquirers
1,109 CARD ISSUERS282 MERCHANT ACQUIRERS ASIA—PACIFIC, CANADA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA, UNITED STATES, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, JCB, Discover and Diners Club
WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN THIS REPORT
Worldwide
General Purpose Cards
Purchase Transactions on Global Cards
Purchases by Card Type
Top 300 Issuers
Top 150 Credit Card Issuers
Top 150 Debit Card Issuers
Top 100 Maestro Issuers
Top 150 Credit Card Portfolios
Top 150 Merchant Acquirers
By World Region
General Purpose Cards 2018 vs. 2017
Market Shares of Purchase Volume
YOY Growth/Decline in Purchase Volume
Top General Purpose Card Issuers
Top 50 Credit Card Issuers
Top 50 Debit Card Issuers
Largest General Purpose Card Issuers
Card Issuers Credit vs. Debit
Largest Merchant Acquirers
12TH EDITION
FOR 50 YEARS, THE LEADING PUBLICATION COVERING PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE
Photo by Kewal on Unsplash
Figures include cards in circulation andspending for credit & debit in each world region.
Order Todaywww.nilsonreport.com/research
MAY 2020
ISSUE 1175 No paid advertising. No sponsored content of any kind. Ever.
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PPRO, a top provider of a local payment platform-as-a-service, has added two Japanese ecommerce payment methods, Konbini and Pay-easy, to the over 150 methods already on its platform. Konbini consumers can shop online and pay in cash at over 50,000 convenience stores. Pay-easy lets consumers pay offline with cash and debit cards at ATMs and post offices or online using a bank transfer. Kelvin Phua is Global Head of Payment Networks at Ppro, [email protected], www.ppro.com.
ZWIPE, provider of a biometric inlay platform for fingerprint-secured payment cards, has a partnership with Hong Kong-based Asia Credit Card Production (ACC), a specialist smart card manufacturer. The Zwipe Pay ONE platform is powered by a single-chip biometric secure element. ACC is currently completing the application process for full Visa, Mastercard, JCB, and UnionPay certification to issuers in the APAC region. Andre Lovestam is CEO at Zwipe, [email protected], www.zwipe.com.
MASTERCARD brand virtual and physical debit cards will be issued by Paytm Payments Bank. The bank will begin with virtual debit cards. Porush Singh is Division President, South Asia at Mastercard, [email protected], www.mastercard.com.
BARCLAYCARD provides UnionPay card acceptance to its 110,000 U.K. merchants. Rob Cameron is CEO of Payment Acceptance at Barclaycard, [email protected], www.barclays.com.
Daniel Eckert has been appointed Executive Vice President & Chief Product, Strategy, and Development Officer at Green Dot, [email protected]. Roger Applewhite has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer at MagTek, [email protected]. Shai Cohen has been appointed Senior Vice President of Global Fraud Solutions at TransUnion, [email protected]. Sean Feeney has been appointed Chief Executive Officer at USA Technologies, [email protected]. Kurt Andersen has been appointed Chief Marketing Officer at BillingPlatform, [email protected]. Matthew Landers has been appointed Vice President of Sales at Certified Payments, matthew.landers@ certifiedpayments.com. Larry Wine has been appointed Chief Operating Officer at Bakkt, [email protected]. Annie Kirkland has been appointed Vice President, Solution Design at Ubiquity Global Services, [email protected]. Octavia Washington has been appointed Assistant Vice President and Operations Analyst at ICBA Bancard, [email protected]. Pamela Tefft has been appointed Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at Priority Technology Holdings, [email protected].
Management Changes
The World’s Top Card Issuers and Merchant Acquirers Now in its 12th edition, this 126-page report lists 1,109 card issuers in 117 countries grouped by region.
Our research report is available as a PDF and, for the first time, data tables are also available in Excel format. This much-requested update adds new possibilities for exploring our data.
As a Nilson Report subscriber, you will appreciate having our regional and worldwide figures in one reference document. You will also get the following (not published in the newsletter):
• Top 300 Issuers Worldwide by Country (ranked by purchase volume)
• Top Merchant Acquirers Worldwide (ranked by purchase volume)
• Hundreds of additional listings: Issuers by Region and Country (more than the top 50) Credit vs. Debit Issuers by Region by Country
Order online, or contact our subscription manager ([email protected]) to inquire about pricing.
The World’s Top Card Issuers and Merchant Acquirers
1,109 CARD ISSUERS282 MERCHANT ACQUIRERS ASIA—PACIFIC, CANADA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA, UNITED STATES, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, JCB, Discover and Diners Club
WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN THIS REPORT
Worldwide
General Purpose Cards
Purchase Transactions on Global Cards
Purchases by Card Type
Top 300 Issuers
Top 150 Credit Card Issuers
Top 150 Debit Card Issuers
Top 100 Maestro Issuers
Top 150 Credit Card Portfolios
Top 150 Merchant Acquirers
By World Region
General Purpose Cards 2018 vs. 2017
Market Shares of Purchase Volume
YOY Growth/Decline in Purchase Volume
Top General Purpose Card Issuers
Top 50 Credit Card Issuers
Top 50 Debit Card Issuers
Largest General Purpose Card Issuers
Card Issuers Credit vs. Debit
Largest Merchant Acquirers
12TH EDITION
FOR 50 YEARS, THE LEADING PUBLICATION COVERING PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE
Photo by Kewal on Unsplash
Figures include cards in circulation andspending for credit & debit in each world region.
Order Todaywww.nilsonreport.com/research
The World’s Top Card Issuers and Merchant Acquirers Now in its 12th edition, this 126-page report lists 1,109 card issuers in 117 countries grouped by region.
Our research report is available as a PDF and, for the first time, data tables are also available in Excel format. This much-requested update adds new possibilities for exploring our data.
As a Nilson Report subscriber, you will appreciate having our regional and worldwide figures in one reference document. You will also get the following (not published in the newsletter):
• Top 300 Issuers Worldwide by Country (ranked by purchase volume)
• Top Merchant Acquirers Worldwide (ranked by purchase volume)
• Hundreds of additional listings: Issuers by Region and Country (more than the top 50) Credit vs. Debit Issuers by Region by Country
Order online, or contact our subscription manager ([email protected]) to inquire about pricing.
The World’s Top Card Issuers and Merchant Acquirers
1,109 CARD ISSUERS282 MERCHANT ACQUIRERS ASIA—PACIFIC, CANADA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA, UNITED STATES, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, JCB, Discover and Diners Club
WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN THIS REPORT
Worldwide
General Purpose Cards
Purchase Transactions on Global Cards
Purchases by Card Type
Top 300 Issuers
Top 150 Credit Card Issuers
Top 150 Debit Card Issuers
Top 100 Maestro Issuers
Top 150 Credit Card Portfolios
Top 150 Merchant Acquirers
By World Region
General Purpose Cards 2018 vs. 2017
Market Shares of Purchase Volume
YOY Growth/Decline in Purchase Volume
Top General Purpose Card Issuers
Top 50 Credit Card Issuers
Top 50 Debit Card Issuers
Largest General Purpose Card Issuers
Card Issuers Credit vs. Debit
Largest Merchant Acquirers
12TH EDITION
FOR 50 YEARS, THE LEADING PUBLICATION COVERING PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE
Photo by Kewal on Unsplash
Figures include cards in circulation andspending for credit & debit in each world region.
Paytronix Systems private equity round 39 $10.0 U.S.
Recko Series A 40 $6.0 India
Yapily Series A 41 $13.0 U.S.
*Terms not disclosed. 1 Purchased a 5% stake. 2 Led By SoftBank's Latin America Fund. 3 Led by Shefa Capital. 4 Led by Lee Ka Kit. 5 From Itochu. 6 Acquisition. 7 Investors not disclosed. 8 Led by GV. 9 Led by BRI Ventures.10 Led by Mastercard. 11 Including Visa. 12 Led by Hope Cochran. 13 From QBN Capital. 14 From Speedinvest. 15 Led by Lingfeng Capital. 16 Led By Union Square Ventures. 17 Led by AlbionVC. 18 Purchased a 4.7% stake. 19 From Madison Dearborn Partners. 20 Led by Y Combinator Continuity. 21 From DNB and Danske Banke. 22 Led by Andreessen Horowitz. 23 Led by Signal Peak Ventures. 24 Led by Beenext. 25 From Flipkart. 26 Led by New Vision 3. 27 Including Vela Technologies. 28 Led by IFC Asset Management. 29 Led by Havisham Group. 30 Including Lending Tree. 31 Led by Accel and Founders Fund. 32 Led by Salesforce Ventures. 33 Led by MetaBank. 34 From Koch Disruptive Technologies and New Enterprise Associates. 35 Including American Express. 36 Led by TPG Growth. 37 Led by Warburg Pincus. 38 Led by Tiger Global Management. 39 Led by Great Hill Partners. 40 Led by Vertex Ventures. 41 Led by Lakestar.
aluminum, are scratch-resistant. They can be made in any color with bright and semibright finishes. All edges are completely smooth.
AnoCards are immediately available for identification, insurance, loyalty, and private label prepaid use cases. Accreditation
from Visa and Mastercard is in progress and hoped for by year-end 2020. Full-function contact-only AnoCards have already been validated by third-party labs to meet all relevant ISO standards. The cards cannot support contactless payments because aluminum blocks radio waves.
What is distinctive about aluminum cards is the vibrancy of the color printing, which is also immune to fading or discoloring over time. AnoCards, which weigh 9.5 grams, are heavier than PVC cards but lighter than other metal cards.
Anomatic can deliver cards premilled with pockets that accommodate chips and magnetic stripes from its facilities in the U.S. All design, prototyping, tooling, anodizing, and fabrication occur in the same plant. The company operates over 90 stamping presses and 14 anodizing lines. It can produce over 2.50 billion units a year.
Steve Rusch is VP Marketing and Business Development
at Anomatic in New Albany, Ohio, srusch@anomatic.
com, www.anomatic.com.
through Visa Direct and Mastercard Send generated $1.626
trillion in payment volume in the first quarter of 2020 (January 1
through March 31), up 4.9% from the same period in 2019.
Credit card purchase volume of $931.72 billion increased 3.1%. Cash volume (from balance transfers, ATMs, over the counter, and paper checks) on credit cards was $30.04 billion, up 5.6%.
Visa cards generated $492.09 billion in credit card purchase volume, up 3.9%. Mastercard purchase volume on credit cards was $216.89 billion, up 6.6%. American Express at $188.75 billion fell 2.7%, and Discover at $33.99 billion increased 3.3%.
Cash accounted for 3.12% of total credit card volume, up from 3.05% in the first quarter of 2019.
Combined purchase and cash volume on Visa and Mastercard debit and prepaid cards plus Visa Direct and
...validated by third-party labs to meet all relevant ISO standards.
Mastercard Send volume reached $694.29 billion, up 7.6%. Visa payment volume (including Visa Direct) on debit and prepaid cards increased 7.6%. Mastercard debit and prepaid card payment volume (including Mastercard Send) grew 7.5%.
Of all card transactions at merchants, credit cards accounted for 38.73%, up from 38.46% a year
earlier. Transactions on Visa cards accounted for 56.92% of all credit card transactions. Visa’s market
share decreased 39 basis points over the first quarter of 2019.
Mastercard’s market share of credit card purchase transactions was 23.54%, up 91 basis points. American Express held a 13.38% market share of all credit card payment transactions, down 60 basis points. Discover held a 6.16% share, up 8 basis points.
Prior issue: 1157
SunTrust. Outstanding credit card receivables at Truist exceeded $5.64 billion at year-end 2019. The Truist Visa/Mastercard credit card portfolio ranks 16th largest in the U.S.
Conversion of BB&T’s credit card portfolio, which is almost entirely comprised of Visa cards, will occur in the 4th quarter of 2021. Tsys will begin processing the accounts in 2022. In the meantime, accounts that operate under the BB&T name will continue to be processed by FIS. Tsys already handles card account processing for SunTrust’s consumer and commercial credit card portfolios. When combined, the Truist credit card business includes 3.8 million Visa and Mastercard accounts.
Truist owns two merchant acquiring processing portfolios. Currently, Fiserv (First Data) handles merchant account processing for SunTrust as part of
a revenue-sharing alliance. Tsys Merchant Services point-of-sale terminal processing is wholesaled by BB&T.
Fiserv (First Data) provides debit card account processing services for SunTrust cards. Tsys handles that function for BB&T. When combined, Truist is the fifth largest debit card issuer in the U.S. Its more than 8.8 million Visa and Mastercard cards generated over $46 billion in purchase volume in 2019.Brad Strock is Executive VP, Card and Direct to Consumer
Lending at Truist in Wilson, North Carolina, bstrock@
bbandt.com, www.truist.com.
Gaylon Jowers is Senior Executive VP, Global Payments
The company was a pioneer in providing services to large corporations with support for Visa, Mastercard, and American Express purchasing card products. Today, Adflex is increasingly using virtual cards preloaded with invoice information to replace purchasing card transactions.
Adflex, which processed over $4.00 billion in payments last year, also supports push payments (straight-through processing) from suppliers directly from an ERP system using commercial credit lines. It helps buyers by onboarding suppliers to accept card payments. Transactions
include Level 3 data as well as travel hand-off data sent directly to card issuers.
The Adflex platform, which is PCI-DSS v3.2.1 certified, supports partial settlements and refunds and recurring payments. Users can request real-time analytics as well as tokens for card transactions.
The credit card portfolio ranks 16th largest in the U.S.
Credit card purchase volume of $931.72 bil. increased 3.1%.
Global Payments Gets Truist Credit Card Processing from page 1...
First Quarter Card Results in the U.S. from page 5...
Adflex B2B Digital Payment Processing from page 1
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general purpose debit and credit card transactions they handled in 2019. In both charts, purchase transactions counted include in-store, online, and mobile (web and in-app).
The chart on this page ranks Europe’s 20 largest merchant acquirers by purchase volume (spending for goods and services) and purchase transactions. The chart on page 12 ranks the 25 largest acquirers based on online and mobile purchase transactions. Global brand and domestic-only cards are combined on both charts.
Of the eight domestic-only general purpose debit and credit card brands in Europe identified by the acquirers listed here, the four largest based on purchase transactions were Mir, girocard, Bancontact, and Pagobancomat.
In the table on pages 8 and 9, only Visa and Mastercard transactions are counted. That chart does not include American Express, Diners Club, JCB, UnionPay, or domestic-only cards.
Those 45 acquirers processed 94.50 billion (up 19.5%) Mastercard and Visa card transactions in 2019 from 11.7 million active merchant outlets.
Adflex offers a virtual terminal with web application. Merchants can upload files for Adflex to
process. The Adflex card payment API integrates into a merchant’s ERP system or payment
platform. The company is fully integrated with SAP and offers customers worldwide access to merchant acquiring services.
Customers include Barclaycard, HSBC, Visa, BNP Paribas, Citi, Bank of America, Fiserv (First Data),
Global Payments, and American Express. Elavon recently signed a Europe-wide partnership with Adflex. Mastercard has selected Adflex as a partner in Europe to test its Track Business Payment Service.
Adflex is an Amazon Web Services partner. It is also building the capability to offer Google Low Code, which utilizes a visual approach to application development. Developers with little experience can use a graphical user interface with drag-and-drop components and model-driven logic to create web and mobile applications. Pat Bermingham is CEO at Adflex in London, U.K., patb@
Mastercard and Visa purchase volume combined was $3.415 trillion.
Of the 45 largest merchant acquirers in Europe, 27 handled more than 1 billion Mastercard and Visa card payments last year. That group handled a combined 89% of the purchase transactions and 88% of the purchase volume.
Mastercard and Visa purchase volume and transactions included in the web-based column in the chart below are the online and mobile business of those acquirers. Web-based is a subset of the Mastercard/Visa column to the left side of those figures.
Sberbank remained Europe’s largest Mastercard/Visa merchant acquirer, a position it has held since 2016. Sberbank dominates acquiring in Russia, where it is over 8 times larger than its nearest competitor.
J.P. Morgan Merchant Services pulled ahead of Credit Agricole and Credit Mutuel to become Europe’s 4th largest Mastercard/Visa acquirer in 2019.
VTB Bank moved up to 15th largest in 2019, up from 17th in 2018. UniCredit moved to 25th largest, up from 26th. Gazprombank moved up to 30th from 33rd. Payone, owned by Ingenico since the first quarter of 2019, moved to 32nd from 38th.
Santander Espana Merchant Services moved up to 38th from 39th. Global Payments, the joint venture
in Central and Eastern Europe involving Global Payments, CaixaBank, and Erste Group moved to 43rd from 45th.
Tinkoff Bank made the Top 45 ranking for the first time and took the 44th place.
The 45 largest acquirers handled 18.11 billion (up 44.4%) web-based (online and mobile) transactions in 2019 valued at $975.24 billion. J.P. Morgan Merchant Services held a 24.9% market share of all web-based transactions among the top 45 acquirers in Europe. Adyen’s share was 14.9%, Worldpay’s share was 14.4%, Barclay’s share was 6.3%, and Sberbank held a 6.0% share.
The 45 largest acquirers handled 315.3 million (up 11.1%) transactions from American Express, Diners Club, Discover, JCB, and UnionPay credit cards last year. Those payments were valued at $24.79 billion.
J.P. Morgan Merchant Services acquired 34.7% of that business.
Russia-based Mir led Europe’s domestic-only
debit and credit brands with 4.86 billion transactions handled by acquirers listed here. In 2019, Sberbank acquired 4.37 billion Mir transactions. Another 494.4 million Mir transactions were acquired collectively
Figures are net (gross minus chargebacks). 1 Mastercard and Visa credit, debit, and prepaid cards including Maestro and Electron. Change in volume is based on local currency. 2 Web-based fi gures include all card brands (Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Diners Club, JCB, UnionPay, and domestic general purpose credit and debit cards). 3 PRO100 and Mir figures (4.37 bil., $34.75 bil.) are not included. 4 Includes Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania. 5 Acquired Concardis. Dankort and girocard figures (1.51 bil., $72.15 bil.) are not included. 6 Estimate. 7 Includes its pan-European operation in Germany including branches in the U.K. and Ireland, eService in Poland and the Czech Republic, and Universalpay Entidad De Pago, S.L. in Spain. Girocard figures (10.8 mil., $897.5 mil.) are not included. 8 Bancontact and Girocard figures (1.44 bil., $64.32 bil.) are not included. 9 Mir figures (256.1 mil., $4.18 bil.) are not included. 10 Cartes Bancaires figures (0.7 mil., $27.3 mil.) are not included. 11 Joint venture between CaixaBank and Global Payments. Also includes its acquiring business in Portugal. Multibanco figures (55.9 mil., $2.31 bil.) are not included. 12 Estimate. Does not include the UCS Russia business, the Comercia Global Payments joint venture in Spain, or the joint venture in Central and Eastern Europe involving Global Payments, CaixaBank, and Erste Group. 13 Pagobancomat figures (345.4 mil., $22.90 bil.) are not included. 14 Troy figures (30.3 mil., $572.3 mil.) are not included. 15 Includes 33 countries in Europe and the Intesa Sanpaolo International Subsidiary
Bank study revealed household debt in the United States increased 1.1% to $14.300 trillion in the first quarter of 2020 despite a larger than expected $34-billion seasonal decline in credit card debt. The JPMorgan Chase Institute found that household spending on Chase credit cards fell 40% year over year by the end of March despite a frenzy of early spending on household essentials when the implications of stay-at-home orders became apparent. Chase is the largest U.S. credit card issuer ranked by credit card outstandings.
Brazilian payment processor StoneCo laid off 1,300 employees, roughly 20% of its workforce. Digital wallet provider PicPay surpassed 20 million customers seven months ahead of precoronavirus projections. Trade association UK Finance reported that issuers in the U.K. offered payment holidays to 700,000 credit cardholders in the month of April. The association said 27 million card accounts were offered three months of interest-free borrowing on the first $610 (£500) of overdrafts. Issuer Virgin Money UK suspended, then reinstated, new purchases on
more than 30,000 credit cards in the first week of May, seemingly against prior guidance by the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority.
Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover announced delays in implementing changes to interchange and other merchant fees until April 2021.
Despite a January purchase agreement, Wex is attempting to terminate its purchase of U.K.-based B2B payment specialist Optal and Australia-based travel payment firm eNett.
PSCU, a top provider of card account processing services to credit unions in the U.S., reported that credit card spending is down more than 20% in the states hardest hit by Covid-19. However, debit card spending is up 8.5% in those same states. PSCU said card-not-present (CNP) transactions among its member credit unions nationwide were up over 51%, while CNP counted for nearly 60% of all purchase volume.
India’s government expanded low-interest credit offered to the country’s hard-hit agricultural sector through Kisan Credit Cards available from 10 regional, cooperative, and public sector banks. The Reserve Bank of India called for a moratorium on credit card payments in April.
In the United Kingdom, K Wearables and its partner Moorwand were overwhelmed by demand after they offered 300 rings with embedded EMV-compliant contactless payment technology to frontline workers in the National Health Service (NHS). Payment card
manufacturers Cardel, Nitecrest, and Allpay partnered to produce protective
visors for the NHS. Flatfair introduced a software tool for resolving rent disputes and creation of payment plans between residential leaseholders and landlords. TrueLayer, provider of APIs customers deploy to facilitate open banking, launched a fee-free standalone app to initiate
account-to-account transfers to charities. Cross-border payment platform Rapyd waived foreign exchange and processing fees on the first $100,000 in total processing volume for new businesses in the U.S., Brazil, and Mexico.
In Canada, Mastercard’s RiskRecon unit responded to escalating criminal hacking by extending a free cybersecurity assessment service. Mobile payment provider bKash, the
largest in Bangladesh, reported a $12-million surge in remittance funds in April, up from $3 million in March.
Back to WorkAmerican Express’s CEO,
Stephen Squeri, speaking to employees via video, said, “We still don’t know exactly when we will start coming back (to the office) but we expect it will take several months in most locations…for the most part our offices in the near term will be alternative workspace for people...In fact, if you can work from home effectively, you should plan on doing so for the
rest of the year...I want us to be able to handle as much as 50% occupancy in most locations by the end of the year. But I want to be clear that I don’t expect us to get anywhere near the 50% mark by the end of 2020…We are going to phase in the number of people in each location, starting slowly at as low as 10% occupancy…we’ll have procedures for seating and moving around in each building to ensure
social distancing…That means no meetings in conference rooms and no visitors or contractors in our buildings…we’ll be enhancing our cleaning protocols, making hand sanitizers readily available, and optimizing our air conditioning systems…enhanced screening and monitoring of everyone entering our offices, including ways to measure temperatures.”
PolicyThe World Economic Forum
released a study recognizing the contributions of digital payment technology during a pandemic through the lens of China’s accelerated adoption of digital payments following the outbreak of SARS in 2003. In the United States, a coalition was formed to encourage preservation of cash payments. Members include the Amusement and Music Operators Association, the National Armored Car Association, and ATM manufacturer Diebold Nixdorf.
Bridges in the U.S. city of Philadelphia resumed accepting cash for payment of tolls. The U.S. Department of Transportation took the unusual step of reiterating its position on air travel refunds, and a bill called the Cash Refunds for Coronavirus Cancellations Act of 2020 was put forward by United States Senators.
Retail ShiftACI Worldwide documented
the rapid shift from spending in brick-and-mortar stores to online merchants. The company’s analysis indicates that general retail ecommerce grew 209% year over year in April, while gaming (126%) and digital downloads (26%) also saw significant increases. Indian payment platform provider Simpl reported a 30%-35% increase in transactions on essential items. A Mastercard research report on 12,500 consumers in Europe reported a 36% uptick in online spending on essentials, as well as a surge in spending on books, online entertainment, and exercise equipment.
There was a 62% increase in new online storefronts created on Shopify’s ecommerce platform, while the company’s Q1 revenue increased 47% year over year. Square responded to the
pandemic by helping merchants move to ecommerce and curbside pickup with its Online Checkout function. Weekly gross payment volume on the company’s online store has grown 500% since the launch of its curbside capability. Square, heavily dependent on brick-and-mortar stores, closed Q1 with a loss of $106 million. Klarna reported U.S. customers initiated 25% more transactions with airlines in the week ended May 9 than the prior week.
The U.S. Department of Commerce found that April retail sales were down 16.4% from March and down 21.6% from April 2019. Retail apparel took an especially large hit with an 89.3% year-over-year decline. Retailers J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, and JCPenney filed for bankruptcy protection. All three have private label credit card programs. In its earnings call, Evo Payments reported recently dormant merchants are making and taking payments again after 35% of its customers ceased trading following the imposition of lockdown orders. China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported retail sales of consumer goods were down
in April by 16.2% year over year. Tencent announced more than $1.4 billion worth of WeChat Pay Spending Vouchers will be distributed. Tencent’s first quarter earnings of $15.2 billion were led by its online gaming companies. The company’s fintech holdings, which include WeChat Pay and a stake in Afterpay, were up 22% year over year, but down 12% from the previous quarter.
Prior issues: 1174, 1173
CHINA
WeChat Pay will be distributing over $1.4 bil-lion worth of government-issued spending vouchers.
U.K.
Issuers offered payment holidays to 700,000 customers in April.
Wex is attempting to terminate January purchase agreements for Optal (B2B payments) and eNett (travel payments).
BANGLADESH
bKash reported an $12-million surge
in remittance funds.
U.S. household debt increased 1.1% to $14.300 trillion.
Retail ecommerce grew 209% year over year in April.
U.S.
A Chase study found house-hold spending on its cards fell 40% YOY in March.
Shopify reported a 62% increase in storefronts and a 47% rise in revenue.
BRAZIL
PicPay’s digital wallet reached 20 million customers seven
months ahead of projections.
Payment Industry’s Response to Covid-19—Part 3 from page 1
by Gazprombank, Russian Standard Bank, Tinkoff Bank, and VTB Bank.
In Belgium, Worldline acquired 1.44 billion Bancontact transactions.
In Denmark and Germany, Nets acquired 1.51 billion Dankort and girocard transactions, which are included due to its merger with Concardis.
In Italy, Nexi Payments, Intesa Sanpaolo, and UniCredit combined to acquire 1.00 billion Pagobancomat transactions.
In Germany, EVO Payments and Payone with a majority market share combined to acquire 1.80 billion girocard transactions.
Garanti, Yapi Kredi Bank, T. Isbank, and Akbank acquired 67.5 million Troy transactions in Turkey.
Domestic-only debit and credit card transactions processed by the top 45 acquirers in Europe reached 11.01 billion in 2019, up 50.8% from the prior year, and generated $336.14 billion in purchase volume. Figures for all acquirers that handled domestic-only debit and credit cards are provided in the footnotes. Growth in domestic-only card transactions exceeded growth in global brand cards for the third consecutive year.
Transactions handled by processors iZettle, Klarna, and SumUp are counted at acquirers listed here.
When Adyen and Wirecard act as third-party processors, those transactions are settled through acquirers listed here. Both also have licenses to acquire directly in Europe. Adyen’s acquiring volumes are listed here. Wirecard’s are not because those volumes are too low to make the ranking.
