China Daily USA published this article based on insights featured in Packaged Facts’ brand-new report, Commercial Payment Cards: U.S. and Global Market Trends, 9th Edition. China UnionPay’s (CUP) ambitious approach to building partnerships has helped it become the largest payment-card network in the world, according to the author of a recent market report. “CUP has aggressively forged partnerships with bank card issuers and processors across the globe, and buoyed by network reciprocity agree...
October 30, 2015This blog is based on the Packaged Facts report Private Label Credit Cards in the U.S., 9th Edition. Purchase a copy by Dec. 1 and receive 5% off with promo code PFPLCC1015. The movement to virtual private label cards housed within retailer mobile apps foretells the eventual demise of the physical card: Already, more than 30% of private label card issuer and program manager Alliance Data Systems’ private label card purchase value is made via card-not-present transactions. More broadly, retai...
October 13, 2015Globalization is occurring at a rapid pace, requiring increased simplification and control over employer payments and expenses across multiple countries. Among payment providers (networks and card issuers alike), this has undoubtedly caused growing pains, as they struggle to craft solutions sophisticated and robust enough to meet global challenges of many stripes-regulatory and operational hurdles among them. But in plain English, it also means payments expansion-following the arc of global gr...
May 2, 2014Let’s start with a statistic that, for traditional banks, looks quite troubling; according to survey analysis conducted for Packaged Facts’ January 2014 Debit Cards in the U.S., 5th Edition , the percentage of 18-24 year olds having a “checking account at a bank, savings and loan, credit union, or brokerage firm” has plummeted by almost 30% during 2010-2013. What’s happening here? Clearly, traditional banks are losing checking account customers. And it’s not just customers larger banks may h...
February 6, 2014While consumers historically underserved by mainstream financial services industry are often referred to as unbanked or underbanked, young adults are quickly joining their ranks. In Unbanked and Underbanked Consumers in the U.S., 3rd Edition , Packaged Facts found that the percentage of 18-24s who self-identify as unbanked has grown by almost 25% during 2005-2013. This jump has likely been influenced by recession-driven unemployment and wage trends that have disproportionately affected younger e...
January 23, 2014Once home to consumers with higher risk profiles and higher chargeoff rates, store credit card volume and active accounts took a nosedive during the recession, as issuer portfolios groaned under the strain of bad debt and reduced customer engagement. But signs point to a private label turnaround. Deal-making activity suggests that private label card programs have become a more viable and stable income source for issuers; the payment card segment has been buoyed by a spate of deals that has invig...
August 15, 2013