Latin America's card markets nearing maturity

Latin America's card markets nearing maturity
Tags: Bank / Credit Union, Debit / Credit, Distributors / ISO / IAD, Other, Retail / Off-Premises, Transaction Processing, Trends / Statistics
April 10, 2006

ePaynews: Latin America's card-payment systems are nearing maturity, as are the economies of scale necessary for sustained growth, as POS terminal penetration and card issuing increases. Credit card penetration grew by almost 20 percent annually in some Latin American countries over the past five years, and now runs at 40 percent in Brazil and Argentina. In 2004, Brazil's installed base of card terminals reached 500,000; in the state of Sao Paulo, from 2004 to 2006, more than $55 million was spent on POS terminal, ATM and network technologies. As card payments infiltrate new merchant categories, NoticiasFinancieras predicts economies of scale will result in a greater volume of card payments.