International payment networks facing emerging threat from domestic competition and m-POS

ENGLAND: The dominant payment brands, such as MasterCard and Visa are facing increasing competition from both newly established domestic networks (most notably RuPay in India and PBOC 3.0 in China) and alternative mobile payment developments including digital wallets and m-POS solutions.

ABI Research has forecast that RuPay and PBOC 2.0/3.0 cards will have the largest market impact, accounting for 2 percent of all cards in circulation in 2013, increasing to 21 percent in 2018. This will directly eat into the potential growth that the likes of Visa and MasterCard would have targeted.

Despite this, ABI Research believes that international network branded cards will remain dominant. The international players have a strong global footprint which will prove hard to budge paired with improving product lines aimed at extending payment functionality and acceptance including mobile wallets and contactless cards.

“Any new domestic network or card has to be more than a simple payment card,” comments practice director, John Devlin. “With government support, the new domestic networks can focus efforts on targeting the unbanked to bring up the level of financial inclusion, as road mapped within India’s RuPay initiative. This strategy focuses on the untapped market yet to be affected by international networks and local banking practices.”

Within the study, ABI Research took a closer look into the m-POS market, forecasting shipments of m-POS solutions increasing from 6.2 million in 2012 to 21.2 million in 2018.