Published: October 30, 2024 | Updated: December 16, 2024
Read time: 3 minutes
Mastercard Business Intelligence's Card Comparison solution enables like-for-like comparison of more than 10,000 payment card products across more than 75 markets around the world.
Uncover the key insights from this year’s analysis of the Card Comparison database highlighting the best practice features - across: 1) card services, 2) travel and insurance, 3) medical and emergency, 4) security and 5) convenience – of cards in two growth segments: commercial cards and youth and student cards.
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Commercial cards represent a significant opportunity for issuers, and solve a range of payment challenges, including:
- Inefficient manual reconciliation due to transaction data lacking sufficiently detailed information in financial messaging
- Forecasting and compliance limitations without real-time visibility into total transactions
- No payment reversals for irrevocable RTPs. This increases fraud risk without real-time fraud prevention
- ACH transfers lack payment guarantees and only provide delayed failure notifications (e.g. for non-sufficient funds)
- Reduced cash flow and working capital when funds are withdrawn directly from bank account
- Unavailable or inconvenient international payments, which may involve unpredictable and unclear correspondent bank fees
How can issuers refine their card value propositions to attract business customers?
Our analysis of more than 1,650 commercial cards in our Card Comparison solution identified eight best practice features of successful commercial card value propositions:
Differentiating features
Spending controls and card blocking are less common and may offer an opportunity for issuers to differentiate products.
What are the opportunities for issuers offering products to younger consumers?
There are significant opportunities for youth card issuance in all global regions (All data is from RBR Data Services – a division of Datos Insights, 2024)
Middle East and Africa
Global region with youngest population, but lowest banked population.
Asia Pacific
Largest number of under 15s in the world, and relatively high banked population for the whole region.
but containing large markets with lower banked populations.
Latin America and the Caribbean
High proportion of population is under 15 years and fastest growing banked population of any global region.
North America and Europe
Lower proportion of young people.
but the highest GDP per capita and spend per card.
North America
- $75k GDP per capita
- $41k card spend per adult per year
Europe
- $33k GDP per capita in EU
- $11k card spend per adult per year in EU
How can issuers refine their card value propositions to attract young customers?
Our analysis of 230+ youth and student cards in our Card Comparison solution identified the best practice features of successful youth and student card value propositions.
Youth cards
Differentiating features
Merchant controls
- Merchant controls, including preset blocks for age-restricted merchants, blocked merchant lists and blocks by location are not commonly offered and present a significant opportunity to differentiate the value proposition.
Student cards
Differentiating features
Shopping features
- Particularly for student cards, the ability to activate shopping insurance and guarantee extension are outlier benefits that are offered infrequently.
Do you want to explore the global or regional payment card landscape?
Mastercard Business Intelligence Card Comparison lets you compare a wide range of features, including fees, limits and benefits, across more than 10,000 card products globally.
Access the solution today to uncover best practice card value propositions and get a competitive advantage.
