Abstract
Mercator Advisory Group' s annual report on the merchant acquiring industry in
the United States is now in its third year. While developments in this market
unfold at a surprising pace, the old cliche about "the more things change" has
never rung so true. Accelerating change seems to be the new constant.
In our first two years doing the acquiring market overview, we identified and
delineated trends in the space that have accelerated and, in some cases, have
come to their full fruition. Notable among the topics we' ve analyzed and
discussed in reports, as well as in advisory sessions with our clients, has
been growing competition for merchant customers between banks and non-banks
(ISOs), and the seeming push on the part of banks to "reintermediate"
themselves in the merchant card acceptance value chain in a more significant
way. Value-added services and technology continue to play a larger role as the
commoditization of payment processing services truly begins to hit home for
acquirers. The evolving scope of PCI is also fresh in the minds of our clients
and other participants in the space as the industry saw the announcement of
two major breaches of payment card information at payment processors over the
last year.
Last year' s report predicted a perfect storm converging on the acquiring space
that would significantly alter the industry landscape. Many of the same issues
are still brewing - a still-foundering economy and lingering recession, new
laws regulating the payments space, and another round of pending legislation
targeting interchange and the cost associated with merchant card acceptance
being chief among them. The third key issue that we identified last year,
however - dissolution of the largest acquiring operation in the world - has
evolved into a new instance of market consolidation with the announcement of a
different joint venture between two of the top 3 acquirers in the US market.
The space has been ripe for consolidation over the past few years, and the
economy and the other market forces we' ve alluded to have pressed the issue.
As merchant acquiring faces its existential crisis, the question of what it
truly means to be a merchant acquirer naturally arises. In this year' s report,
we update our discussion of the various basic business models used by
acquirers and other participants on the merchant side of the payments value
chain to go to market in the US, and increasingly in other parts of the world.
We also examine updated industry data concerning the market performance of the
top players in the space and we make projections about how these players might
stack up in the years ahead. Finally, we further explore the impact and
potential impact of some of the secular trends within Payments and their
effect on the acquiring business in particular, now and in the future.
"The economic downturn was the single biggest determining factor in the
various performance records of the nation' s largest acquirers in 2008.
Merchant attrition and declining volume growth due to reduced consumer
spending both had a large impact on merchant acquirers' business," comments
David Fish, Senior Analyst in Mercator Advisory Group' s Credit Advisory
Service and author of the report. "As we consider the merchant acquiring space
currently, and where it might be headed, we need to take into account many of
the trends and the market events that stand to have a broad impact, either as
catalysts or symptoms of these trends. Whether the issues at hand are a root
cause of market dynamics or the result of them, change is happening in the
space either way. Fortunately, the acquiring side of the payment chain has a
long history of fighting tooth and nail for its slice of the action."
Report Highlights Include:
- Change is the new constant in the US merchant acquiring space, with the
pace accelerating as pressure from market forces intensifies.
- However, the forces impacting the domestic acquiring market remain largely
the same. Acquirers have been adapting to the new normal in a variety of ways.
- We provide an expanded taxonomy of the 7 basic business models acquirers
use to further clarify what it means to be an acquirer.
- Market data covering the top 10 US acquirers is delineated and analyzed,
and our projections for acquired bankcard volume suggest a very different
landscape within five years.
- The market is poised to continue a trend of consolidation, driven by the
economy, new complexities arising from data security issues, and increasing
competition between banks and non-banks.
This report contains 29 pages and 11 exhibits
Companies Mentioned in This Report: Advent International; Alliance Data;
American Express; Banc of America Merchant Services; Chase Paymentech; Citi
Merchant Services; Discover; Elavon; Fifth Third Processing; First Data; First
National Merchant Solutions; Global Payments (GPN); Heartland Payment Systems
(HPY); Intuit Payment Solutions; Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts (KKR); MasterCard;
Moneris; National Processing Corp. (NPC); Network Solutions; RBS WorldPay;
SunTrust Merchant Services; TSYS; Visa; Wells Fargo Merchant Services.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF FIGURES
INTRODUCTION
ACQUIRER BUSINESS MODEL TAXONOMY
2008 - THE YEAR IN REVIEW
- A NOTE ON ACQUIRING INDUSTRY DATA
- MARKET PERFORMANCE OF THE TOP 10 US ACQUIRERS
- ACQUIRING MARKET SHARE CAN VARY BASED ON DIFFERENT METRICS
- FIRST DATA' S DATA
- THE PORTFOLIO SHUFFLE - PART ONE
- CRYSTAL BALL TIME - ACQUIRER MARKET SHARE IN FOUR YEARS
SELECTED MARKET TRENDS - 2009 AND BEYOND
- THE PORTFOLIO SHUFFLE - PART TWO (BANKS AND NON-BANKS IN MERCHANT
ACQUIRING)
- MERCHANT AND LEGISLATOR PRESSURE ON CARD PROCESSING COSTS AND WHAT
ACQUIRERS MIGHT DO TO ALLEVIATE IT
- THE GRIM SPECTER OF PCI
CONCLUSION - "THE MORE THINGS CHANGE..."
TABLE OF FIGURES
- Figure 1: Acquiring - Typical Business Models in the US
- Figure 2: The Top 10 US Acquirers 2008
- Figure 3: Growth in US Bankcard Volume for 2008 Top 10
- Figure 4: Acquirer Share of Total US Payment Card Volume 2008
- Figure 5: Acquirer Share of Total US Transactions 2008
- Figure 6: Portfolio Size for Top 10 Acquirers
- Figure 7: Estimated Average Annual Merchant Bankcard Volume
- Figure 8: Estimated Average Bankcard Ticket
- Figure 9: Projected Acquirer Market Share 2012 - Bankcard Volume
- Figure 10: Bank-Branded Acquirers Capture Over Two-Thirds of the US Market
- Figure 11: But, Bank Owned Acquirer Processors Capture Less Than Half of
US Volume
