Payment Cards in Germany 2006

Publication Date	October 2006
Publisher	Datamonitor
Product Type	Report
Pages	82
ISBN Number	not applicable
Product Code	DAT04169

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Summary

Introduction

Payment Cards in Germany is an invaluable guide to one of Europe's largest card markets. Created using a combination of secondary and primary research, this report provides statistics on market size, competitor market shares and card acceptance. It also provides an overview of regulation, competitor activities and product innovation. It concludes with market forecasts and a SWOT analysis.

Scope

The focus of the report is on consumer payment cards, as opposed to commercial products.
Data and analysis is provided on the following card types: debit cards, deferred debit and charge cards, and revolving credit cards.
Historic market data is presented for 2001-2005, with forecast data presented to 2010. Competitor shares for card issuers are presented for 2005.
The report parameters extend to card issuance only. Merchant acquiring and card processing are not covered.

Highlights

The payment card market in Germany is characterized by a high degree of penetration; cardholding averaged close to 1.4 cards per person at the end of 2005. German consumers are clearly familiar with carrying and using plastic cards.

In terms of cards in issue, Germany is one of the largest cards markets in Europe and is second only to the UK. At the end of 2005 there were 112.3 million cards in circulation, which is slightly up on the 2004 total of 111.8 million.

The acceptance network remains limited in comparison to the other major markets in Europe. Merchants have historically been reluctant to accept card payments due to the comparatively low cost of accepting bank transfer payments from consumers at the POS, and this has had a huge impact on the level of general purpose card use.

Reasons to Purchase

Learn how the German consumer payment card market has developed over the last five years.
Understand recent developments in the market in terms of consolidation, new entrants and product innovations.
Find out our opinion on the future growth rate of the German cards market, looking at debit, deferred debit and charge, and credit.

Content

Executive Summary
Introduction
- What is this report about?
- Scope of the report
- Structure of report
Market Context
- Market overview
- Demographics
- Economy
- GDP
- Inflation
- Distribution of income
- Unemployment
- Market size
- Payment cards in the context of consumer payments
- Payment card statistics
- Cards in issue
- Number of transactions
- Value of transactions
- Card acceptance
- POS statistics
- ATM statistics
- Market structure
- Private commercial banks
- Private commercial banks mainly concentrate on corporate banking rather than retail banking
- Sparkassen Group (savings banks)
- Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken (co-operative banks)
- Regulatory environment
- Industry regulators
- Bundesbank
- BaFin
- Industry associations
- Zentraler Kreditausschuss - ZKA
- Deutsche Sparkassen- und Giroverband - DSGV (German savings banks association)
- Bundesverband deutscher Banken - German Bankers Association
- Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken - BVR
- Bundesverband -ffentlicher Banken Deutschlands - V-B
- Bankenfachverband
- Credit bureaux
- Schufa
- Infoscore
- Regulatory issues in the market
- European consumer credit directive
- Private commercial banks are not allowed to acquire Sparkassen under current legislation.
- Landesbanken lose state guarantees
- A change to the way the maximum interest rate is calculated has caused confusion for German lenders
- Key issues
- Fraud and EMV
- SEPA
Competitor And Product Overview
- Card scheme market shares
- Pay now cards
- Value of transactions
- Charge / deferred debit cards
- Value of transactions
- Credit cards
- Value of transactions
- Card issuer market shares
- Leading card issuers in Germany
- Pay now issuer market shares
- Pay later competitor market shares
- Credit card issuer market shares
- Competitor developments
- Most recently, Commerzbank announced it is to take control of Eurohypo
- June saw FORTIS announce the launch of a chain of credit shops
- New entrants
- ING entered the card market through its DiBa brand
- Product analysis
- Pay later product design
- Credit card design
- Product innovation
- Citibank offers an account transaction text service
- Loyalty card schemes
- Abolition of annual fees for some credit cards
- Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken has moved to offer MasterCard SecureCode
- Baden-Wuerttembergishe tempts cardholders with football
Forecasting The Plastic Card Market In Germany
- Forecasting the pay now card market
- Forecasting the credit card market
- Forecasting the charge and deferred debit card market
- SWOT Analysis
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
Appendix
- Supplementary data
- Market context
- Definitions
- Affinity Card
- Credit Card
- Deferred debit/charge card
- EMV
- EPC
- ePurse
- Merchant Service Charge
- Pay now cards
- PoS Terminal
- Research methodology
- Cards and Payments database
- Future readings
- Datamonitor's custom research capabilities
- Cards & Payments Team contact details
- How to contact experts in your industry
List of Tables
- Table 1: GDP per capita for selected European countries, 2005
- Table 2: The inflation rate has increased from 1.0 per cent in 2003 to 1.9 per cent in 2005
- Table 3: GINI Coefficient for selected European countries
- Table 4: Segmentation of liquid assets, 2004
- Table 5: EMV migration is progressing at a slow rate with only 20-40% of total payment cards EMV-compliant, 2005
- Table 6: Credit card offering of Barclaycard and Citibank in Germany, September 2006
- Table 7: Datamonitor's forecast of the pay now card market, 2006f-2010f
- Table 8: Datamonitor's forecast of the credit card market, 2006f-2010f
- Table 9: Datamonitor's forecast of the charge and deferred debit card market, 2006f-2010f
- Table 10: Population numbers and demographic splits in Germany and other major European countries, 2005
- Table 11: The percentage of people over the age of 20 in the major European countries, 2005
- Table 12: GDP at current rates across major European countries, 2005
- Table 13: Real GDP growth rates, 2001-2005
- Table 14: Unemployment in Germany, 2001-2005
- Table 15: Value of consumer spending by payment method, 2003
- Table 16: Number of ATMs and population per ATM, 2001-2004
- Table 17: Number of POS terminals and population per terminal, 2001-2004
- Table 18: Current relevant Datamonitor publications, 2006
- Table 19: Future relevant Datamonitor publications, 2006
List of Figures
- Figure 1: Overview of Germany, 2005
- Figure 2: Germany has the highest population among the major European countries, 2005
- Figure 3: Germany has the fourth highest percentage of population over the age of 20 after Italy, Spain and Greece, 2005
- Figure 4: Germany has the highest GDP in Europe, 2005
- Figure 5: While the economic situation in Germany has now improved, GDP growth between 2001 and 2005 depicts the dire state of the German economy in recent years, 2001-2005
- Figure 6: The German economy is dominated by the service sector, 2005
- Figure 7: Unemployment in Germany has been on the rise, 2001-2005
- Figure 8: German consumers prefer using non-card payment methods, in particular cash and credit transfers, 2003
- Figure 9: Debit cards account for the vast majority of German payment cards, 2001-2005
- Figure 10: The number of payment cards transactions slumped in 2004, but started to recover in 2005
- Figure 11: Debit cards are by far the most frequently used payment card products in Germany, 2001-2005
- Figure 12: Payment card spend rose fairly substantially in 2005
- Figure 13: The highest average transaction values are recorded on debit cards, 2001-2005
- Figure 14: The number of POS terminals in Germany has increased over time, but in per capita terms the market is small in relation to other European markets, 2001-2004
- Figure 15: Germany's ATM coverage has improved, but is still weak compared to other European markets, 2001-2004
- Figure 16: The three pillars of German banking, 2005
- Figure 17: Banking groups in the three pillars, 2005
- Figure 18: Regulatory overview of Germany, 2006
- Figure 19: Maestro dominates the German debit card market in terms of card in issue, 2001-2005
- Figure 20: Maestro also dominates the debit card market in terms of value of transactions, 2001 - 2005
- Figure 21: MasterCard is the leading player in the charge / deferred debit card market in terms of cards in issue, 2001-2005
- Figure 22: MasterCard also leads the charge / deferred debit card market in terms of card spend, 2001-2005
- Figure 23: MasterCard just has the edge over Visa in the credit card market in terms of cards in issue, 2001-2005
- Figure 24: MasterCard's dominance is more clear cut in terms of credit card spend, 2001-2005
- Figure 25: The Sparkassen are the biggest issuers of debit cards in Germany, 2005
- Figure 26: The Sparkassen and Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken are the leading two players in the pay later card market, 2005
- Figure 27: Barclaycard is the top player in the credit card market in terms of cards in issue, 2005
- Figure 28: Overview of main mergers, 2005
- Figure 29: Increased use at the POS will drive growth in the pay now card market, 2005-2010f
- Figure 30: Increased usage is forecast to drive growth in the credit card market, 2005-2010f
- Figure 31: Despite a decline in cardholding, growth in usage will drive expansion in the charge and deferred debit card market, 2005-2010f
- Figure 32: SWOT analysis of payment card market in Germany
- Figure 33: Datamonitor's core consulting capabilities