Credit Cards Issuers in Western Europe 2008

Introduction

Lafferty Credit Cards in Western Europe 2008 indicates lead issuers in each of the markets and changes in market structure that have taken place since 2003. It covers 16 countries: 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 Whereas markets such as the UK, France and Finland show high levels of concentration, with the top five issuers accounting for over 70 percent of cards issued, in countries such as Portugal (52 percent), Spain (50 percent) and Germany (36 percent) the card-issuing market is less concentrated.

Even where markets appear concentrated, however, it is still possible for 'newer players to make an impact. In the UK, the major five domestic retail banks and MBNA control 83 percent of the credit card issuer market. However, MBNAs rise has been fairly recent. The US financial institution was able to make an impact initially via co-branding and affinity cards, and used aggressive direct marketing techniques to capture market share.

A number of banks operate cross-border in the card issuance space. These include GE Money, Citi, Capital One, Barclaycard and BNP Paribas (Cetelem). In Germany, for example, issuers such as Citi and Barclaycard are significant players.

The extent of competition between card issuers varies between markets. In France, for example, there would appear to have been little competition despite the entry of foreign players such as Egg, which left the market in 2004. However, this could change with the lifting of the Cartes Bancaires ban on co-branded and affinity cards.