different to how it looked just a year ago. Familiar names have
fallen by the wayside as consolidation has swept over the sector,
and issuers are nervous about the future. Economic and regulatory
pressures are only adding to the uncertainty, as CI
reports.
The UK, already in the throes of recession, could be
one of the worst-hit economies in Europe over 2009 and 2010, with
GDP growth rates slipping into negative territory, and a slew of
economic forecasts predicting further bad news to emerge over the
coming months.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently
announced that the UK recession could be deeper and longer than in
most other parts of the world, and could well last into 2010. The
IMF expects the global economy to shrink by 0.6 percent in 2009,
instead of growing 0.5 percent as it previously predicted, but it
predicts that the UK economy will shrink by 3.8 percent, with a
further 0.2 percent contraction in 2010.
The importance of the UK housing market to the
country’s economy has led some economists to predict that falling
house prices will have dire consequences for the capability of
already highly-leveraged UK consumers to service their debts (the
total indebtedness of the UK population was almost £1.5 trillion
[$2.19 trillion] as of September 2008, and UK house prices fell by
around 15 percent from August 2007 to October 2008).
Also, a spate of disastrous losses at some of
the UK’s leading banks has been the catalyst for a recent spate of
mergers and acquisitions which will leave the country’s financial
landscape very different to how it was just a year ago, not least
in the payment card market.
Despite this tumultuous backdrop, the UK
payment card market remains one of the most competitive in the
world. Although credit card profitability is unlikely to reach the
giddy heights of a few years ago, there are other areas where UK
issuers are innovating and thriving. Changing consumer payment
preferences, technological leaps forward, and refocused business
strategies by the country’s major issuers who are now retracing
their steps back to their core domestic markets are converging to
redraw a payment landscape that still offers potential for those
who are nimble enough to adapt to changing fortunes.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataDebit card trends
The high level of current account penetration in the UK
(around 93 percent of the population have a current account) has
given debit card usage an entrenched position in the UK payment
card market and made debit cards the preferred way to pay with
plastic in the UK.
In 2006, there were 68.3 million debit cards
in circulation and 41 million cardholders. By the end of 2008,
those figures had risen to 75 million and 42.1 million
respectively. According to UK payment industry body APACS, debit
cards accounted for 73.5 percent (or 5.5 billion purchases) of all
plastic card purchases in the UK in 2008, compared with 71.7
percent in 2007.
But debit cards are also facilitating an
increasing number of cash withdrawals in the UK. At the end of 2008
there were 805 million cash withdrawals amounting to £52.7 billion,
compared to 726 million and £49.7 billion in 2007 respectively.
Cash machine numbers have also risen strongly, rising from 58,286
in 2005 to 63,916 by the end of 2008.
As of 2008 there were approximately 64 million
current accounts in the UK, of which 54 million were estimated to
be active. The five largest banks – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and
HBOS (now together known as Lloyds Banking Group), and Royal Bank
of Scotland (RBS) – provide around 80 percent of current accounts
in the UK, with the remainder supplied by Nationwide Building
Society, Abbey and other smaller institutions, according to the UK
industry regulator the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
The 16 banks which supplied relevant
information to the OFT into its 2008 report into the UK current
account market, and which together account for around 95 percent of
the UK current account market, earned £8.3 billion in revenue from
current accounts in 2006, equivalent to £152 per active bank
account and representing more revenue for banks (31 percent of
revenues) than savings accounts (17 percent) and credit cards (13
percent) combined.
Banks earned over 85 percent of their revenues
on current accounts from two sources, net interest income from
credit and debit balances (£4.6 billion), and levying charges
associated with insufficient funds (£2.6 billion).
The most popular current account model in the
UK is the ‘free-if-in-credit’ model, also known as the ‘free
banking’ model, which has been predominant in the UK since 1985.
Consumers who are in credit do not pay any direct fees for core
transactional services such as direct debits, but there are
significant charges on unauthorised overdrafts or if the bank
refuses to make a payment that would take an account beyond an
agreed limit.
The issue of free banking is under intense
scrutiny in the UK, with the OFT concluding in its 2008 report that
the market in its current state does not work well for consumers,
due to a combination of complexity and lack of transparency over
“less visible” fees. According to the OFT, the market is distorted
and not as competitive as it should be.
In early March, UK banks lost their appeal
against a decision allowing the OFT to decide whether or not
charges on authorised overdrafts are fair. This could mean bank
customers will be able to reclaim billions of pounds in bank
charges later in 2009, if the OFT decides the charges are unfair as
expected.
Another issue expected to bite into bank
profit margins is the banning of the sale of payment protection
insurance (PPI), following investigations by the Financial Services
Authority (FSA) and the Competition Commission. As of next year, it
will be illegal to sell PPI policies alongside credit cards and
loans – providers will have to wait at least seven days after the
sale of a credit card or loan to sell a policy to the same
customer.
But the pressure to end free banking is
largely being driven by the economic woes that UK banks have
suffered over the last year, since the beginning of the credit
crunch in mid-2007. Interest rates are at an all-time low (the Bank
of England base rate was reduced to just 0.5 percent in March
2009), with banks warning that free accounts may be in danger
because of the pressure on bank interest rate margins.
Credit card trends
The UK credit card market has stagnated over the past few years,
with the number of cards in circulation gradually declining.
According to UK payment industry body APACS, at the end of 2008
there were 30.2 million credit cardholders, and 71.3 million credit
and charge cards in circulation, compared with 71.8 million in
2007. Credit and charge cards accounted for 26.5 percent of all
plastic card purchases in 2008, compared with 28.3 percent in
2007.
Figures from the Bank of England show that
gross credit card lending to individuals in 2008 amounted to £131.4
billion, compared to £128.5 billion in 2007, indicating that the
declining number of credit cards in circulation is pushing up the
average outstanding balance per card.
In its Precious Plastic annual report
into the state of the UK consumer credit market, global consultancy
PricewaterhouseCoopers stated that the increase in outstanding
balances and a fall in the number of credit cards led to an
increase in average borrowing per card of 4.7 percent in the year
from September 2007 to September 2008. The contraction of unsecured
credit extended to UK households by issuers over the past year has
also pushed up average outstanding balances.
In its Credit Conditions survey,
published in January 2009, the Bank of England reported that
issuers had further tightened scoring criteria for credit card
borrowers in the three months to December 2008, with approval rates
remaining broadly unchanged for credit card borrowing.
For those credit card borrowers that met
lending criteria, credit limits had been reduced, with issuers
expecting a further reduction in overall unsecured credit
availability. The decline in credit availability is being driven
primarily by continuing concerns over the UK’s economic outlook
along with a decline in risk appetite.
According to price comparison website
MoneyExpert.com, millions of UK credit card customers have had
their credit limits cut by an average of £2,000 over the past six
months. Approximately 2.7 million customers have had their limits
cut, an increase of 50 percent on the same period a year ago, with
the average being around £1,960, saving issuers around £5
billion.
However, issuers also reported that there was
a small increase in demand for credit card borrowing by households,
whereas demand for other forms of unsecured lending, such as
personal loans, had fallen, indicating that UK consumers are
increasingly feeling financially distressed.
UK issuers would appear to have restricted
opportunities available to boost profitability on their credit card
portfolios due to the vagaries of the UK market. Annual fees are
almost non-existent, except on premium cards aimed at high net
worth individuals, and regulatory intervention on default charges
in 2006 severely curtailed the default fee levels charged by
issuers for late payment of credit card bills, being reduced from
£20 to £12, putting further strains on issuer profitability.
A long-time staple of new customer
recruitment, the zero percent balance transfer offer, is nowhere
near as popular as it was a few years ago, as most issuers still
running this kind of promotion now charge between 2 and 3 percent
of balances transferred, compared to an average of 0.59 percent in
2005. In many cases, issuers have also restricted these deals to
existing customers only or for those with near-perfect credit
scores.
Charges for using UK-issued cards abroad have
also risen – earlier this year, UK building society Nationwide
announced it would be reversing its long-standing policy of not
charging their customers to use their cards abroad, and would be
passing on the fee charged by Visa when people use their cards
outside Europe.
In relation to credit card lending spreads,
the Bank of England’s Credit Conditions survey stated that
issuers reported that these had remain broadly unchanged, although
spreads are expected to narrow over the coming months, in contrast
to spreads on other forms of unsecured borrowing where they were
reported to have increased.
PwC’s report also states that net interest
yields on credit cards after charge-offs have significantly
declined over the past decade due to the intensely saturated state
of the market, but over the last 12 months, net yields have
actually increased, thanks to falling default rates and changes in
lending and acceptance criteria.
Also, with the average APR increasing from 15
percent in September 2007 to 16.1 percent by September 2008,
revenues gleaned from revolving balances have helped issuers to
offset rising costs of funding, although PwC warns that this effect
may be short-lived due to the worsening economic outlook and an
expected rise in charge-offs and delinquencies. However, with the
banning of PPI selling looming, it is likely that APRs will
continue to rise despite the low base rate, due to the fact that
issuers are more dependent on LIBOR (London Interbank Offer Rate)
as a source of wholesale funding, which is significantly higher
than the base rate.
A recent agreement which came into force in
January 2009 between credit card issuers and the UK government
means that issuers will no longer be able to raise interest rates
without notice, and will only be able to increase rates twice a
year.
Issuers were threatened with intervention from
the OFT if they did not agree to the proposals. Issuers will also
be unable to raise interest rates on credit cards for at least a
year after a new customer has taken out a deal. After that period
they will be able to increase rates every six months, but each time
they do so they must give consumers 30 days’ notice of any changes,
and give them the chance to close their card and pay off their
outstanding debt at their existing lower rate.
However, there will be no cap on the amount by
which lenders can increase their rates, and cardholders have not
been told to cut rates, despite the average APR being almost nine
times the Bank of England base rate.
Payment networks
According to statistics from the British Bankers Association (BBA),
for many years, Visa was the largest credit card network in terms
of cards in issue in the UK, with a market share of 58 percent as
of December 2005, but in July 2007 MasterCard overtook Visa, due to
a series of portfolio migrations at UK banks and building
societies.
As of December 2008 there were 27.06 million
Visa-branded credit cards in circulation, and 39.63 million
MasterCard-branded credit cards in circulation, giving market
shares of 40.5 percent and 59.4 percent respectively.
However, in the debit card space, Visa
recently scored two coups that fundamentally altered the balance of
power between the two.
In early 2008, it was announced that HSBC’s
Maestro-branded debit card portfolio (numbering 10 million
customers) would be migrated to Visa’s debit platform. HSBC’s
rationale for the decision was based on Maestro being less widely
accepted worldwide than Visa, and was “to benefit customers who
make international transactions”, according to the bank.
But this claim was derided by the British
Retail Consortium (BRC), which said that the move would cost
merchants an extra £25 million a year in interchange and other
charges. Stephen Robertson, the BRC’s director general, said the
fee retailers will pay for a Visa debit transaction is 34 percent
higher than for an equivalent Maestro transaction. According to the
BRC, HSBC accounts for 40 percent of the market in personal debit
card transactions.
Later in 2008, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)
also decided to make the switch from Maestro to Visa debit. The RBS
switch is due to take place from mid-2009, although the bank’s
credit card portfolio will remain MasterCard-branded. MasterCard’s
debit platform is set to replace the Maestro platform, although no
timetable has been given.
MasterCard debit cards will support POS
purchase and refund, contactless payment, cashback with
authorisation and handling by non-UK domiciled merchants the same
as per MasterCard credit cards. MasterCard debit cards will be
issued as hybrid EMV and magnetic stripe and magnetic stripe-only
cards. Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks will be two of the first UK
institutions to roll out new MasterCard debit cards later in
2009.
Major issuers
Barclays/Barclaycard
In its 2008 annual results, Barclays
reported a 4 percent growth in the number of current accounts to
11.7 million, compared to 11.3 million in 2007. In its Barclaycard
credit card division, 2008 profit before tax rose by 31 percent to
amount to £789 million, compared to £603 million in 2007.
The £789 million figure included £260 million
from Barclaycard International. Income growth of 27 percent was
driven by growth in Barclaycard International, £156 million of
income related to the acquisition of the Goldfish portfolio in
2008, and gains related to the Visa IPO and sale of MasterCard
shares.
As of 2008, Barclaycard had 11.7 million
customers, compared to 10.1 million in 2007 – the bulk of that
increase came with the acquisition of Goldfish customers in early
2008, which also pushed up Barclaycard average outstanding balances
amounted to £9.9 billion from £8.4 billion in 2007.
HSBC
HSBC reported $5.84 billion in card
net fee income as of December 2008, compared to $6.49 billion in
2007, with the fall in large part due to the divestment of HSBC’s
UK card acquiring business, resulting in reduced card acquiring
fees.
Credit quality in the personal financial
services portfolio remained broadly stable, reflecting early risk
mitigation through the tightening of lending controls and the sale
of non-core credit card portfolios during the year.
Credit quality in the unsecured portfolios of
M&S Money, HSBC Bank and partnership cards in the UK showed a
slight deterioration in 2008, particularly in the second half of
the year, due to the weakening UK economy. In the UK, HSBC extended
$11.2 billion in credit card loans, compared to $15.01 billion in
2007.
Lloyds TSB/HBOS (Lloyds
Banking Group)
Lloyds Banking Group was born from
the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS in late 2008, which led to the
group having £20.6 billion in current account balances in 2008,
compared to £20.3 billion in 2007, a rise of 2 percent.
Lloyds TSB’s retail bank opened one million
new current accounts during the year, having placed special focus
on cross-selling new products to existing customers. As of 2008,
Lloyds TSB’s credit card balances stood at £6.6 billion, unchanged
from the previous year.
One of its most successful products is the
Lloyds TSB Airmiles Duo credit card, which now has over 1.4 million
customers. According to the bank, customers of this card tend to be
more credit-worthy and transactional.
In terms of market share in new credit cards,
Lloyds TSB estimates it has a market share of around 13 percent,
and also claimed to be the leading consumer debit card issuer in
the UK during 2008. Around 90 percent of new credit cards sold
during 2008 were to existing customers.
HBOS
As a separate entity before its
acquisition by Lloyds TSB, HBOS reported outstanding credit card
balances of £6.7 billion in 2008, compared with £6.8 billion in
2007, with the group noting that the appetite for credit card
lending remains cautious, and credit availability being tightened
up for existing customers.
Total credit exposure was reduced by £593
million since June 2008. Over 615,000 new credit card accounts were
acquired during 2008, giving HBOS a market share in new credit card
accounts of 11 percent. In the debit card market, its market share
of new current accounts in 2008 was 16 percent, in line with the
year before, and new bank accounts opened totaled 960,000, compared
to one million in 2007.
Royal Bank of
Scotland
In 2008, RBS reported credit card
loans to customers of £6.4 billion, compared to £7.8 billion in
2007, with the fall largely due to the sale of the Tesco Personal
Finance business to Tesco during 2008, which reduced personal
unsecured balances by £1.9 billion. The sale of the business, which
has around 2.2 million credit cards in issue, reaped RBS £442
million in sale proceeds and income of £285 million in 2008.
RBS also claims to be the market leader in the
UK current account market with around 17 percent market share. RBS,
alongside Barclays, has been at the forefront of pushing
contactless and mobile payment projects in the UK over the last
year, and in the second quarter of 2009 will be involved in the
roll-out of a contactless transit trial in the city of
Liverpool.
|
UK |
|
|
2008 – current account |
|
|
Bank |
Customer accounts (m) |
|
HSBC |
7E |
|
Lloyds Banking Group |
16 |
|
RBS |
15 |
|
Barclays |
11.7 |
|
Santander* |
15E |
|
HBOS |
6.5 |
|
*now includes Abbey, Alliance & |
|
|
UK |
|
|
Credit card market |
|
|
Bank |
2008 receivables (£bn) |
|
HSBC |
7.7 |
|
Lloyds TSB |
6.6 |
|
RBS |
6.4 |
|
Barclays |
9.9 |
|
HBOS |
6.7 |
|
Source: CI, banks |
|
