The report reveals that the number of debit cards increased by 10.4 percent between 2004 and 2006 to reach 406 million. Over half of cards issued in Western Europe are debit cards, a third are credit cards and 15 percent are charge cards.The UK remains the region’s largest credit card market, despite registering a 8 percent fall in the country’s credit card numbers as a result of credit card issuers closing dormant accounts. The UK market numbers 161 million cards, followed by Germany with 127 million. Western Europe’s fastest growing credit card markets include Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.Financial institutions are the most important issuers of payment cards and account for 83 percent of cards. Private label cards have been converted to ‘bank cards’ over the past few years as issuers have adopted the MasterCard or Visa brand to extend their acceptance network. The only countries where private label cards account for more than a quarter of the national market are France, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Switzerland.The report also shows that transaction volumes are growing faster than card numbers. 27.2 billion card payments were made in the region in 2006, up by 17 percent compared to 23.2 billion card payments recorded in 2004. The total number of POS terminals in Western Europe increased to 7.1 million between 2004 and 2006 (up by 19 percent). Norway had the most frequently used terminals, followed by those in Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK. The number of transactions per terminal are lowest in Greece, Italy, Turkey and Spain. The report reveals that card processing in Europe has remained largely nationally based, but third party processors have recently extended their presence across Europe. The report also reveals that many European countries are at different stages when it comes to implementing EMV standards.The ‘Payment Cards Western Europe 2008’ report was created by Retail Banking Research. It presents data from 17 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK.
