Visa Europe’s credit card market share in the United Kingdom grew at a steady pace the past two years, and another favorable spike could occur leading up to the 2012 London Olympics, for which Visa is an official sponsor, a new report suggests.
Visa Europe’s share among “top-of-wallet” credit cards grew to 51% in this year’s first quarter from a 42% share at the end of 2008, driven primarily by shifts in cobranding partnerships from the MasterCard brand, according to Auriemma Consulting Group’s latest Cardbeat report.
“To quantify the growth based on specific promotions like the Olympics is difficult, but there is a halo effect associated with it as there would be a preference toward [Visa cards],” Megan Bramlette, Auriemma director of international knowledge management, tells PaymentsSource. “Visa is spending a lot of money on advertising.”
Auriemma, with offices in New York and London, derived its findings through a survey of 503 UK credit cardholders in January.
MasterCard top-of-wallet market share fluctuated, but trended down, during that same period, to 42% from a high of 54% in the second quarter of 2009, according to the Cardbeat report.
But Hany Fam, MasterCard UK president, remains confident his company has not lost strength in the UK market, citing numerous mobile, PayPass and prepaid card partnerships formed during the past year as catalysts.
Fam also questions the Auriemma study’s findings, pointing to past UK Cards Association (formerly APACS) payment card reports, which he says consistently indicate credit card market share between MasterCard and Visa Europe tends to be even and fluctuates little. Bramlette agrees but notes the Cardbeat data simply reflect what consumers deem “top of wallet.”
As Visa Europe continues its promotional push for the 2012 London Olympics, MasterCard believes it has ties to an even bigger event in the UK–the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which next June will mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 60-year reign.
“The queen’s jubilee will make the Royal Wedding seem like a picnic,” Fam says. “Visa does their thing, and we do ours.”
Visa Europe is an association of about 4,000 member European banks. It formed in 2004 and remained independent after Visa Inc. went public in 2008.
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