There were 69 million payment card terminals installed worldwide across 47 million outlets at the end of 2014, according to RBR’s new report entitled Global payment card data and forecasts to 2020. This classic annual report shows how the number of terminals has grown by 14% since end 2013 as card acceptance has expanded to merchant sectors which previously primarily transact in cash, e.g. many small retailers having a terminal for the first time.  

Asia-Pacific has continued to be the fastest-growing region for card acceptance. The region shares are shown below:

Source & Copyright©2015 - RBR London

The number of merchant outlets per chard scheme - see chart below - shows that Discover’s acceptance network is only slightly less than Visa and MasterCard’s.

Source & Copyright©2015 - RBR London

Contactless cards and usage

RBR believes that the usage of contactless cards at EFTPOS terminals will boost card acceptance for low-value because merchants see it as an opportunity to reduce the cost of accepting traditional card payments.

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CTMfile take: There are now three major merchant terminal networks with JCB and UnionPay not far behind. Maybe now is the time to consider accepting other cards, not just VISA and MasterCard.