Global cashless initiatives drive increase in card acceptance

By Sunniva Kolostyak

Initiatives led by governments worldwide to promote cashless payments during the Covid-19 crisis has driven an increase in card acceptance among merchants, with adoption predicted to reach 100 million by 2025.

According to predictions from RBR, a banking research and consulting firm, the global number of outlets accepting cards will reach 95.9 million by the end of 2025, up from 74.5 million at year-end 2019.

This is due to the encouraged use of contactless payments over cash, which has boosted the number of EFTPOS terminals.

Commenting on the findings, Daniel Dawson, who led RBR’s research, said: “COVID-19 has made contactless technology more appealing and encouraged some merchants that were previously reluctant to accept cards to start doing so.”

In 2019, card acceptance grew by 4 per cent, with some markets seeing considerable increases, such as India, where the number of outlets accepting cards rose by 959,000, or 40 per cent, largely as a result of the government putting pressure on banks to recruit more merchants.

The Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2025 report also found that UnionPay has overtaken Discover to become the most widely accepted card scheme. It now stands for 80 per cent of the global total, with significant increases in Europe and Russia, as well as the Asia-Pacific region due to entering the Indian market.

UnionPay’s market share can be attributed to the size of the Chinese market, and RBR has found that if the region is removed, acceptance falls to 70 per cent, which is less than both Visa and Mastercard.

Discover, on the other hand, benefits from network-to-network agreements with UnionPay in China, JCB in Japan and BC Card in South Korea.

Furthermore, American Express is accepted at 52 per cent of outlets worldwide and Diners Club at 48 per cent. JCB is accepted at 74 per cent of outlets worldwide, higher than other three-party schemes owing to its universal acceptance in China.