In The Americas, Mastercard’s Growth Outpaces All Others

The number of Mastercard cards increased 6 percent in the Americas in 2015, which compares to a 4 percent increase for Visa, but Visa still holds the spot as the largest card scheme in the region, reported RBR.

According to RBR’s Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2021 study, Visa had 43 percent of the 2.9 billion cards in circulation in 2015 compared to Mastercard, which had 26 percent market share. Private-label cards accounted for 23 percent of the share, a piece that is declining as the cards are frequently converted to international schemes.

RBR said that Mastercard saw particular strength in North America with the number of its cards growing by 12 percent in Canada and 6 percent in the U.S. during 2015. Mastercard branded cards account for 40 percent of the total in Canada, helped by an agreement between Mastercard and Costco. RBR noted that market share gains are often a result of deals between credit card issuers and retailers. It pointed to the 2014 deal between Walmart and Mastercard and in 2013 when Best Buy changed credit card partners to Visa from Mastercard.

“The switch by Costco in the USA from American Express to Visa announced in 2015 is expected to impact positively on the latter’s market share for 2016. In addition, Visa has entered into partnership with USAA, which has led to the organization’s cards being migrated from Mastercard,” RBR said in a press release.

RBR noted that, while domestic credit cards only account for 4 percent of Americas’ cards, domestic schemes grew by 12 percent in 2015 due largely to Brazil’s main domestic credit card, Elo, which expanded by close to a third and accounted for 9 percent of the country’s payment cards. “It will be interesting to see how the competitive dynamic of the Americas cards market develops in the coming years, particularly in light of the major deals we have witnessed, alongside the striking growth of domestic scheme cards in Brazil,” said Chris Herbert of RBR in the release.