Retail Bank Research, a London based research group, which specialise in payment card market analysis, have just published their annual global report on payment cards and usage: Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2022.

Global and regional development

The report predicts:

• the total number of card payments worldwide to reach 483 billion by 2022, a 56% rise compared with 2016. (This is more than double the rate of growth in card numbers, which are projected to increase by 22% over the same period.)
• All regions will see faster growth in card payments than in card numbers.
  • In both the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and central and eastern Europe (CEE), RBR projects the total number of card payments to more than double between 2016 and 2022. 
  • In more mature markets, growth will be characterised by local regulations mandating card acceptance for a widening range of merchant sectors, and also by further penetration of contactless technology for lower-value payments.

Card numbers and technology

RBR found that the total number of card payments worldwide increased by 14% to 310 billion in 2016. In all regions, consumers are increasingly choosing cards to make purchases.

According to RBR’s study, the proliferation of contactless technology and the increasing frequency of contactless payments, especially for low-value purchases, have been key to the growth of card payments in many mature markets. In France, both banks and the government have actively pushed the technology to reduce cash usage and encourage efficiency, while the UK has seen a rapid increase in contactless payment acceptance matched by growing cardholder confidence in the technology.

Card payments

Forecast growth in the number of card payments by region, 2016-2022

Source: Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2022 (RBR)

Overall, card payments are predicted to grow twice as quickly as card numbers

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CTMfile take: So much for the impact of electronic wallets payments such as Apple Pay, corporate treasurers need to accept that at the point of sale, card payments are going to dominate world-wide for the next 5-10 years at least.