Payment Card Competitor Tracker: September 2012

Introduction

The Payment Card Competitor Tracker provides expert analysis and opinion on the strategic moves of leading competitors in the payment card market. Produced on a monthly basis, the Tracker is a global product and covers over 150 players, including American Express, Barclaycard, Capital One, Citigroup, Discover, GE Money, First Data, HSBC, JCB, MasterCard, Standard Chartered and Visa.

Scope

• Gain invaluable information on your key competitors in one concise document, and track long-term trends using the interactive news database.
• Sharpen your strategy by implementing the best market, product, competitor and strategic developments of leading global players.
• Learn the Datamonitor Cards & Payments Team's view on the most important competitor developments in the month.

Highlights

Apple unveiled its long-expected revamp of the iPhone with the iPhone 5. Surprisingly for many industry analysts, the iPhone 5 does not hold near field communication (NFC) functionality.

However, with the near simultaneous rollout of Apple's latest operating system, iOS6, the company has released its first official digital wallet platform.

US NFC joint venture Isis announced that its pilot launches in Salt Lake City, Utah and Austin, Texas will be delayed for the second time this year due to a host of small but important elements that still need to be put into place. This latest delay is now causing some in the industry to question the long-term potential of NFC.

Online deal provider Groupon is the latest player to enter the POS acceptance market, having recently announced that it is updating its iPhone app to provide mobile payment acceptance to retailers using a dongle to swipe payment cards.

Reasons to Purchase

• What have been the key new product developments in the industry this month, particularly in contactless, mobile, online and prepaid?
• Which players are leading the way with these new developments, and where are they occurring?
• How have trends in competitor activity changed over time, and which regions are becoming more active?
• What are the top developments in the past month and what do they mean for my business?