News

China UnionPay steals worlds top debit card ranking from Visa

Friday 11 April 2014 13:25 CET | News

In 2013, UnionPay debit cards were the most popular payment method recording a higher rate of usage based on purchase volume than that of Visa-branded debit and credit cards.

These are the findings of the Global Cards annual report, published in the current issue of The Nilson Report, a newsletter covering the card and mobile payment industries.

By comparing credit card purchase volume only, Visas market share of 39.22% was down 262 basis points. MasterCards share dropped 158 basis points to 26.08%. UnionPays share grew by 534 basis points to 20.39%. American Expresss share fell 109 basis points to 11.79%. JCBs share improved by 3 basis points to 2.21%, and Diners Clubs share declined 8 basis points to 0.32%.

By comparing debit card purchase volume only, UnionPays share increased 738 basis points to 47.19%. This gain made UnionPay the largest general purpose debit card issuer based on purchase volume. Visas share fell 605 basis points to 40.62%, and MasterCards share declined by 133 basis points to 12.20%.

Credit, debit, and prepaid cards amounted to 8.33 billion at the end of 2013, up 13.3% or 975 million cards over year-end 2012.

Visa brand credit, debit and prepaid cards initiated more than 101 billion payments at merchants in 2013, more than twice as many transactions as MasterCard, its nearest competitor.


Free Headlines in your E-mail

Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.

Subscribe now

Keywords: China UnionPay, Visa, credit card, debit card, online payment, purchase volume
Categories: Payments & Commerce
Companies:
Countries: World
This article is part of category

Payments & Commerce