Retail Bank Research's latest 'Global Payment Cards - Market Data and Forecasts' report shows "that the number of payment cards world-wide increased by 12% in 2012 to 10 billion. The fact that 8 billion milestone was attained as recently as 2010 shows how far the card market has come in the last two years.":

The research, conducted in 66 countries world-wide, showed that in this card growth:

• credit cards had a slight revival while debit cards continued to show strong growth (15%):
• debit card growth was driven by many more people in developing markets coming into the banking system
• credit cards are gaining in popularity as markets emerge from the global financial crisis
• prepaid cards grew by 19%, but still represent 4% of global 

The research also showed that in card schemes:

• UnionPay extended its lead due to rapid growth in China. "However, UnionPay's volume and value of card payments is considerably lower than those of Visa and MasterCard, owing to low card usage in China, where the vast majority of the cards in this scheme (99%) are found."
• VISA and MasterCard are issued in far greater number of countries. Nevertheless, in both Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa, they account for less than half the cards
• domestic card schemes have a significant presence in many markets (in Iran all schemes are domestic because of the prohibition of the issuance of international cards), and in general are prospering.
• it is not a foregone conclusion that the international brands will replace domestic and private label schemes.

Read more in the full report here.

 

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American Express, MasterCard and VISA do not rule the world. Choice of which cards to accept when collecting card payments at the point of sale has to be made market by market and by type of card.