Cards and Consumer Finance in Belgium 2008

Lafferty Cards & Consumer Finance in Belgium 2008 Introduction

Lafferty Cards & Consumer Finance in Belgium 2008 is the most comprehensive research available on consumer finance and credit cards in the market. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods is used by a dedicated team of in-house researchers and analysts to produce accurate and unbiased data. It comprises of 11 sections: key facts, demographics, the economy, consumer credit market, cards market, credit cards profit pool, pricing and enhancements, networks, credit cards issuers, merchant acquiring & processing and other cards market information. The report is reader friendly through the use of a bullet point format and graphs, pie charts and tables to help illustrate key data. Industry experts are always on hand to talk you through any data queries.

Highlights Mortgage and other consumer lending sectors remain comparatively under-developed with relatively low credit card penetration.

Revolving credit cards only really emerged in 2005. However, their growth has been boosted by aggressive marketing strategies from ING Bank and Citi, pioneers of revolving credit cards in Belgium.

Despite strong potential for growth, Lafferty expects rather sluggish development for the credit cards market in 2008 and 2009, partly as a result of poor operating conditions due to the economic downturn.

Segmentation in Belgium is relatively behind other markets, with the affluent sector in particular being relatively poorly served. The one exception is Dexias Platinum MasterCard, launched in 2006.