Introduction

The Payment Card Competitor Tracker provides expert analysis and opinion on the strategic moves of leading competitors in the payment card market. Produced on a monthly basis, the Tracker is a global product and covers over 100 players, including American Express, Barclaycard, Capital One, Citigroup, Discover, GE Money, First Data, HSBC, JCB, MasterCard, Standard Chartered and Visa.

Features and benefits

• Gain invaluable information on your key competitors in one concise document, and track long-term trends using the interactive news database.
• Sharpen your strategy by understanding the key market, product, competitor and strategic developments of leading global players.
• Understand long term trends and key market drivers through Datamonitor's analysis of activity over the past 12 months.

Highlights

36 competitor developments are analyzed in the October edition of the Payment Card Competitor Tracker. This remains below the 12-month average of 51 and a significant fall from the 64 developments recorded in June. Along with September, October has been the slowest month of activity over the previous 12 months.

Activity in October focused primarily on the loyalty and reward space, a segment that has seen uneven growth throughout the year. The number of mobile developments is the lowest since November 2010. However, the overall level of mobile activity has remained very high throughout the 12-month period, a trend that is likely to continue.

Key developments included the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Finance and National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s (NBAD) launch of the second generation e-Dirham card, the launch of PayPal Access by PayPal and X.commerce, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s introduction of NFC payments through "Kaching"

Your key questions answered

• What have been the key new product developments in the industry this month, particularly in contactless, mobile, online and prepaid?
• What products and services have been launched recently? How is the competition adapting?
• How have trends in competitor activity changed over time, and which regions are becoming more active?
• What are the top developments in the past month and what do they mean for my business?