Cards Markets in Western Europe 2008

Introduction

Lafferty Cards Markets in Western Europe 2008 analyses market size in terms of debit, credit and payment card holdings and usage in each country, including a breakdown of card usage at the POS and ATMs. It contains 16 country studies: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. 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. The report is reader-friendly through the use of a bullet point format and graphs, pie charts and tables to help illustrate key data.

Highlights:

In a number of Western European countries, cash remains king and this is reflected in the high usage of cards at ATMs. In Greece, 96 percent of debit card transactions take place at the ATM.

The report reveals significant differences in credit card holdings and usage vis--vis debit cards. Whereas in the UK the average number of credit cards per 100 adults in 2007 was estimated at 131 by Lafferty researchers, the equivalent figure for France was just one-third of that level.

Within consumer credit, credit cards can play a pivotal role in Western European economies, not being tied to any particular type of purchase, as in the case of vehicle finance or hire purchase. However, in some instances credit cards continue to be used primarily as a payment instrument rather than as a means of borrowing funds. In countries such as Italy and France, the main barrier to growth in revolving credit is a consumer preference for charge and deferred debit cards. Compare this with Greece, where credit cards have historically been used as a means of medium-term borrowing rather than as a transaction tool.

In a number of other countries, although card-holding is high, revolving credit remains unusual. In Belgium, for example, revolving credit cards only really emerged in 2005.

As well as providing an analysis of billed volumes, this section has data on average annual spend per card, net credit loss rates, merchant discount charges and interchange rates.