UK Plastic Cards

Published annually, UK Plastic Cards 2005 provides an overview of the key trends and issues facing the UK card market. Intense competition, regulatory compliance, eroding margins and a slowdown in consumer activity have all challenged issuers in 2004. This report provides in depth coverage of these and other issues, along with full data for the credit, charge, debit, and private label markets.

Scope
This report provides full market data for the UK credit, charge, debit, and private label card markets for the period 1995-2004
Competitor market share data for the credit card market is provided, by cards in issue and balances outstanding, for the period 2000-2004
Key issues, such as falling margins, consolidation, regulation, and the changing face of retail partnerships are covered in depth
Forecasts for the credit, debit, charge, and private label markets are provided for the period 2005-2009
Highlights
The UK market has defied predictions of saturation to once again set a new record for the level of spending made by plastic cards. Throughout 2004, the value of transactions made on charge, credit, debit, and private label cards was £436.6 billion, up 11.3 per cent on the level in 2003.

Plastic cards have steadily grown in importance as a payment tool, and are swiftly becoming the dominant payment tool for a growing number of UK consumers. In 2004, the value of transactions made on plastic cards was equal to 60.1 per cent of the value of total household expenditure, up from 44.1 per cent in 2000 and just 26.7 per cent in 1995.

The UK market remains concentrated. At the end of 2004, the top five banks accounted for 59.8 per cent of the total number of credit cards in issue in the UK. Retailers have made a big impact on the UK credit card market. Between 2002 and 2004, the share of the market held by retailer co-branded cards grew from under 3 per cent to over 9 per cent.

Reasons to Purchase
This report is the most established and highly regarded in the market. It provides exclusive competitor share data not available from any other source
It provides in-depth coverage of the key issues facing the market, along with the views of our Cards and Payments Team
Complete market data and five year forecasts are provided in Excel format for ease of use

The Plastic Card Online.INC manufactures a wide variety of plastic cards, including id cards, gift cards, membership cards, hotel key cards, ministry cards, mouse pads and related products. More information is available on their website: www.plasticcardonline.com