(Source: Mastercard Supplemental Operational Performance Data, Q Ended Decem) American Express Market ShareĪs one of the top competitors in the credit card industry, American Express has also seen constant growth. Out of the world’s total 49 billion Mastercard purchase transactions, more than 20% - which accounts for approximately 10 billion transactions - were processed in the US in the fiscal year 2019. The previous year, that number stood at 227 million in the US and 641 million cards in the rest of the world. In 2019, there were 244 million Mastercards being used in the US and more than 700 million worldwide. Its US credit purchase volume was $910 billion in the fiscal year 2019, up from $811 billion the previous year. Mastercard is the second-largest US credit card network. (Source: Visa Operational Performance Data, Q1 2020 ) Mastercard Market Share The previous year, there were 336 million Visa credit cards in circulation stateside and another 737 million cards globally. There were 340 million Visa credit cards in circulation in the US in 2019 and another 800 million around the world. That’s up from $1.95 trillion in December 2018 and $1.77 trillion in December 2017. At the end of 2019, this network’s 12-month US credit payments volume was $2 trillion. Out of the four major US credit card companies, Visa is the largest. With a total of 44.60 billion transactions, the combined dollar volume amounted to about $4 trillion.ĭata sources: Visa Operational Performance Data, Q1 2020 Mastercard Supplemental Operational Performance Data, Q Ended DecemAmerican Express 2019 Annual Report Discover 2019 Annual Report. There were 333.1 million general-purpose Visa credit cards in circulation that year and 243 million Mastercards.ĭiscover provided 60.1 million credit cards, and 54.7 million credit cards came from Amex. The total number of transactions (charges and cash advances) made with credit cards from all four networks reached 41 billion and amounted to approximately $3.8 trillion.īased on the Nilson Report issued in February 2020, Visa and Mastercard were once again the networks providing the most used credit cards in the USA in 2019. The American Express and Discovery networks contributed with another 111 million general-purpose cards the same year. These two companies combined accounted for 84% of all US general-purpose credit cards or a total of nearly 569 million cards in 2018. The Fed’s 2019 Report to the Congress on the Profitability of Credit Card Operations of Depository Institutions confirmed the status of Visa and Mastercard as the most popular credit card brands.

While Visa and Mastercard are distinguished by a notable advantage in terms of global acceptance, American Express and Discover are well-known as payment facilitators that don't need a middleman as they issue cards directly to consumers. However, it’s important to note that the four competitors are by no means equal. The US credit card market is dominated by four giants: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.

Meanwhile, a credit card issuer - usually a bank, a credit union, or a similar financial institution - provides (issues) credit cards to consumers. A credit card network, such as Visa or Mastercard, sets the terms for credit card transactions, authorizes them, and processes them. In this article, you’ll find credit card market share data by network and revolving credit market share facts and statistics by issuer.įirst of all, let’s define the terms. When discussing the market share of credit card companies, it’s important to understand that there are two main ways to segment this extremely competitive industry. The average value of credit card payments was the same for both card types and equalled $89, a slight decrease from the $90 in 2015. Payments made by private-label credit cards represented the remaining 8.5% of transactions in 2018. General-purpose credit cards accounted for 91.5 % of all credit card transactions in 2018 by number, down slightly from 92.1% in 2015. That’s slightly higher than the 33.2% in 2015. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that credit card transactions accounted for more than a third (34.1%) of all card payments in 2018 by number.

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