The ‘UK Cards and Payments: Opportunities and Risks to 2029' report provides detailed analysis of market trends in the UK cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cards, credit transfers, cash, direct debits and cheques during the review-period (2020-24e).
The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2025f-29f). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including market shares of issuers and schemes.
The report brings together the analyst’s research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers detailed regulatory policies and recent changes in regulatory structure.
The ‘UK Cards and Payments: Opportunities and Risks to 2029' report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the British cards and payments industry, including:
- Current and forecast values for each market in the British cards and payments industry, including debit, credit and charge cards.
- Detailed insights into payment instruments including cards, credit transfers, cash, direct debits and cheques. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.
- Ecommerce market analysis.
- Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing the British cards and payments industry.
- Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit and charge cards.
- Comprehensive analysis of consumer attitudes and buying preferences for cards.
- The competitive landscape of the British cards and payments industry.
Key Highlights
- In November 2024, the UK Government introduced the National Payments Vision; a comprehensive plan aimed at promoting the use of electronic payments, improving financial inclusion, and enhancing cashless payment infrastructure. The vision prioritizes the optimization of banking, payment cards, and digital wallets, while also strengthening the existing regulatory framework. The initiative seeks to facilitate seamless account-to-account payments through open banking and explore the potential implementation of a Digital Pound. Furthermore, the plan underscores the significance of infrastructure resilience, fraud prevention, and regulatory alignment-all of which will be overseen by the newly-established Payments Vision Delivery Committee.
- To address the challenges of the current instant payment system and bring it up to date, Pay.UK, the operator of Faster Payments, is developing a shared retail payment infrastructure called the New Payments Architecture (NPA). The NPA will enhance and eventually replace the existing Faster Payments system. The migration of the clearing and settlement process from Faster Payments to the NPA is underway, with support for the ISO 20022 standard. In the UK, the NPA will enable three types of payments: single immediate payments, forward-dated payments, and standing orders. Currently, the NPA is undergoing final testing to ensure seamless integration and functionality, and it is scheduled for launch in 2025.
- Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services are experiencing a surge in popularity; driven by a significant number of tech-savvy millennials and Gen Z users who are more inclined to embrace new payment methods. In November 2024, the US BNPL firm Affirm expanded its operations to the UK. Affirm offers customers interest-free installments for up to three months, as well as interest-bearing monthly payments for up to 12 months. This growing BNPL market has led to the launch of new BNPL companies in the country. For example, in February 2024, American Express introduced its BNPL platform called Plan It. This platform allows credit card holders to convert their purchases into three, six or 12-month installments.
Scope
- Card market size in terms of number of cards, value and volume of transactions in the UK along with detailed card segmentation of debit, credit and charge cards available in the country.
- Market sizing and analysis of major payment instruments including cards, credit transfers, cash, direct debits, and cheques.
- Payment market trends and growth for both historical and forecast period
- Competitor analysis with detailed insights into leading card issuers and schemes.
- Comprehensive analysis of consumer attitudes and buying preferences for cards.
- A detailed snapshot of country's key alternative payment brands.
Reasons to Buy
- Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the UK cards and payments industry and each market within it.
- Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the UK cards and payments industry.
- Assess the competitive dynamics in theUK cards and payments industry.
- Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in UK.
- Gain insights into key regulations governing the UK cards and payments industry.
Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary
2. Market Overview
3. Payment Instruments
4. Card-Based Payments
5. Merchant acquiring
6. Ecommerce Payments
7. In-store Payments
8. Buy Now Pay Later
9. Mobile Payments
10. P2P Payments
11. Bill Payments
12. Alternative Payments
13. Payment Innovation
14. Job Analysis
15. Payment Infrastructure and Regulation
16. Appendix
List of Tables
- Key facts, 2024
- Benchmarking of payment cards, 2024
- Payment instrument transaction values (LCU), 2020-28f
- Payment instrument transaction values ($), 2020-28f
- Payment instrument transaction volumes (units), 2020-28f
- Payment cards in circulation by type (units), 2020-28f
- Volume of payment card transactions (units), 2020-28f
- Value of payment card transactions (LCU), 2020-28f
- Value of payment card transactions ($), 2020-28f
- Debit cards in circulation (units), 2020-28f
- Debit card transaction volumes, 2020-28f
- Debit card transaction values (LCU), 2020-28f
- Debit card transaction values ($), 2020-28f
- Debit cards in circulation by scheme (units), 2020-24e
- Debit card transaction values by scheme (LCU), 2020-24e
- Debit card transaction values by scheme ($), 2020-24e
- Debit cards in circulation by issuer (units), 2020-24e
- Debit cards transaction value by issuer (LCU), 2020-24e
- Debit cards transaction value by issuer ($), 2020-24e
- credit and charge cards in circulation (units), 2020-28f
- credit and charge card transaction volumes, 2020-28f
- credit and charge card transaction values (LCU), 2020-28f
- credit and charge card transaction values ($), 2020-28f
- credit and charge cards in circulation by scheme (units), 2020-24e
- credit and charge card transaction values by scheme (LCU), 2020-24e
- credit and charge card transaction values by scheme ($), 2020-24e
- credit and charge cards in circulation by issuer (units), 2020-24e
- credit and charge cards transaction value by issuer (LCU), 2020-24e
- credit and charge cards transaction value by issuer ($), 2020-24e
- Credit cards in circulation (units), 2020-28f
- Credit card transaction volumes, 2020-28f
- Credit card transaction values (LCU), 2020-28f
- Credit card transaction values ($), 2020-28f
- Credit cards in circulation by scheme (units), 2020-24e
- Credit card transaction values by scheme (LCU), 2020-24e
- Credit card transaction values by scheme ($), 2020-24e
- Credit cards in circulation by issuer (units), 2020-24e
- Credit cards transaction value by issuer (LCU), 2020-24e
- Credit cards transaction value by issuer ($), 2020-24e
- charge cards in circulation (units), 2020-28f
- charge card transaction volumes, 2020-28f
- charge card transaction values (LCU), 2020-28f
- charge card transaction values ($), 2020-28f
- charge cards in circulation by scheme (units), 2020-24e
- charge card transaction values by scheme (LCU), 2020-24e
- charge card transaction values by scheme ($), 2020-24e
- merchant acquiring transaction volumes (units), 2020-28f
- merchant acquiring transaction values (LCU), 2020-28f
- merchant acquiring transaction values ($), 2020-28f
- acquirers’ transaction volumes (units), 2020-24e
- acquirers’ transaction values (LCU), 2020-24e
- acquirers’ transaction values ($), 2020-24e
- retail outlets and card-accepting merchants (units), 2020-28f
- debit card average interchange fees (%), 2020-24e
- credit and charge card average interchange fees (%), 2020-24e
- debit card merchant service charge and interchange fee (%), 2020-28f
- credit and charge card merchant service charge and interchange fee (%), 2020-28f
- retail market by product categories (LCU), 2020-28f
- retail market by product categories ($), 2020-28f
- retail market by service categories (LCU), 2018-22
- retail market by service categories ($), 2018-22
List of Figures
- Inflation rate
- GDP growth rate
- Payment instruments transaction value and volume
- Instant payments transaction value and volume
- Card penetration
- Card payments by value
- Debit card frequency of payments and average transaction value
- Debit card schemes transaction value and volume
- Debit card issuers by number of cards and transaction value
- Credit and charge card frequency of payments and average transaction value
- Credit and charge card schemes transaction value and volume
- Credit and charge card issuers by number of cards and transaction value
- Credit card debt
- Contactless card holding and usage in detail
- Merchant acquiring of payment card transaction value and volume
- Merchant acquiring of payment card transaction value and volume by company type
- Retail product by catagories transaction value and year-on-year grouth
- Retail services by catagories transaction value and year-on-year grouth
- E-commerce transaction value and ecommerce breakdown by mobile vs. desktop/laptop
- Ecommerce market by product and services
- Ecommerce market by paymnet tools
- Factors driving in-store payments and In-store transaction value by payment method
- In-store transaction value by products and services
- BNPL service used in the last six months and Preferred BNPL brand/tool for in-store payments
- BNPL online transaction value and transaction volume
- BNPL share of overall ecommerce transaction value and preferred BNPL brand/tool for online payments
- Digital wallet transaction value and volume
- Digital wallet funding methods, Digital wallet preference by product/service and Digital wallet ownership by brand
- Domestic and international P2P money transfers
- Paymnet tool preference for bill payment and bill paymnet frequency
- Active jobs intensity in the country
- Number of POS terminals and ATMs
Companies Mentioned (Partial List)
A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes, but is not limited to:
- Lloyds Banking Group
- NatWest Group
- Barclays
- HSBC
- Santander
- Nationwide Building Society
- Banco Sabadell
- Capital One
- Vanquis Bank
- Virgin Money
- The Co-operative Bank
- American Express
- Diners Club
- Visa
- American Express
- Klarna
- Google Pay
- Apple Pay
- Samsung Pay
- PayPal
- Click to Pay
