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Netherlands Cards & Payments Market Report

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  • Published Date: November 2020

NETHERLANDS CARDS & PAYMENTS MARKET

A comprehensive overview of the cards, payments and consumer banking market in theNetherlands, with clearsighted commentary backed by historic and forecast data.
E-commerce has grown strongly during the pandemic, a boon for leading payment method, iDEAL.
Over 80 percent of card payments are contactless as of 2020, with some one-in-ten such transactions carried out by mobile devices or wearables in the previous year.
Mobile and online bank transfers are now handled entirely via the new Instant Payments system. BNPL platforms meanwhile have trebled their acceptance rate at Dutch websites.

What to learn from this cards and payments report on the Netherlands

How debit cards are faring as payment apps rise.
What it is that is undermining credit card profitability.
How iDEAL has evolved since its 2016 launch.
Who the main players are now in merchant acquiring.
Why credit cards remain suppressed.

NETHERLANDS COUNTRY REPORT | KEY FACTS

  • The Netherlands is a mature banking and payments market with a trio of large domestic banks dominating.
  • The country's GDP growth is expected to fall into negative territory in 2020 due to the pandemic.
  • Steps to modernise the payments infrastructure took a leap forward in 2019 with the introduction of the country's instant payments system.
  • Contactless payments are growing in popularity with almost all cards in issue having the functionality at the end of 2019.
  • The credit cards market is small with scant consumer demand and poor acceptance in the country.
  • Due to Dutch customers' strong preference for debit cards and their willingness to repay outstandings in full, credit card borrowing rates have been traditionally low.
  • The dominance of iDEAL in e-commerce has limited the customary potential for credit card issuers to drive volume through online channels.
  • The domestic PIN debit scheme was phased out in 2012 and almost entirely replaced by Maestro cards. Visa is gradually gaining a foothold in the market through their V Pay brand.
  • Tikkie, developed by ABN AMRO, is a popular P2P payment app, now boasting six million users.

Netherlands Payments Research | Report Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Demographics and the economy
Payments environment
Netherlands cards market
Mobile payments
Profit pool
The networks
Key retail banks and issuers
Acquiring and processing
Online acquiring
Regulatory and other cards market information

Appendices: Card Payments Data

Appendix I: Demographics and the economy

  • Demographic and economic indicators
  • Ownership of key consumer devices
  • Internet usage by population

Appendix II: Payments environment

  • Access points
  • Account penetration
  • Consumer payment trends
  • B2C e-commerce payment methods

Appendix III: Cards market data

  • Total cards payment metrics
  • Contactless cards metrics
  • Netherlands credit card data
  • Total credit cards metrics
  • Credit cards profitability indicators
  • Debit cards numbers
  • Debit cards metrics
  • Prepaid/e-money cards metrics

Appendix IV: Mobile payments data

  • Mobile P2P payments

Appendix V: Profit pool

  • Netherlands profit pool

Appendix VI: Card networks

  • Networks' credit card market shares
  • Networks' credit card numbers
  • Networks' credit card billed volume
  • Networks' number of credit card transactions
  • Networks' average credit card transaction value
  • Credit card interchange fees by network
  • Networks' debit card market shares
  • Networks' debit card numbers
  • Networks' debit card billed volume
  • Networks' number of debit card transactions
  • Networks' average debit card transaction value

Appendix VII: Key retail banks and issuers

  • Key credit card issuers market shares by credit card numbers
  • Key issuers market shares in credit card outstandings
  • Key debit card issuers market shares by debit card numbers

Appendix VIII: Acquirers and processing

  • Merchant acquirer credit card market share
  • Credit card merchant service charges
  • Merchant acquirer debit card market share
  • Debit card merchant service charges
  • Credit card issuer/issuing processor relationships
  • Credit card acquirer/acquiring processor relationships
  • Credit card issuing processor market shares by card numbers
  • Credit card acquiring processor market shares by the number of POS transactions

Appendix IX: Online acquiring data

  • Online merchant acquirer market share

Netherlands Country Report | Selected Extracts

Demographics and Economy
The Netherlands is the second-largest agricultural-products exporter in the world, after the US, with the sector accounting for over half of the country's trade surplus. Export growth is forecast to be lower in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Payments Environment
The Dutch payments ecosystem is highly advanced: cash usage is in decline while the penetration rate of electronic payments is increasing . . . innovations such as contactless and mobile payments are being rapidly adopted by consumers.

Cards market
Debit cards dominate the Dutch payment cards market, with about 28 million debit cards in circulation at the end of 2019. The use of debit cards for low-value payments has accelerated since the introduction of contactless technology.

Mobile Payments
Mobile payments are growing significantly in the country for both online and in-person transactions. According to the Dutch Banking Association, one in ten contactless transactions were carried out by mobile devices or wearables in 2019.

Profit Pool
Verisk Financial Research's profit pool analysis illustrates a steady decline in credit card revenues in recent years as the unsecured lending market has migrated to personal loans.

Card Networks
Credit cards remain a niche product in the Netherlands due to a consumer aversion to borrowing, strict regulation of consumer credit and their limited use as a payment tool. Mastercard is the dominant player in the Netherlands' debit cards market.

Key Retail Banks and Issuers
Retail banking in the Netherlands is dominated by a Big Three: ING, Rabobank and ABN AMRO. In terms of branches, Rabobank is the largest, followed by ING. At the end of 2019, a total of 46 banks were operating in the country, with some 1,260 bank branches and almost 6,000 ATMs.

Acquiring and Processing
The acquiring market has been impacted by the wave of consolidation in the industry in recent years. The most significant deal here in recent times involved Equens, Paysquare and Worldline.

Online Acquiring
Internet penetration in the Netherlands is high: according to the local e-commerce industry body, Thuiswinkel, 96% of Dutch adults made at least one online purchase in 2019.

Regulatory and Markets Information
The European Central Bank has become the central prudential supervisor of financial institutions in the Eurozone and hence the role and position of the De Nederlandsche Bank in the Netherlands has changed.

Netherlands Payments Report | Entities Referenced

ABN AMRO
Adyen
AFM
Afterpay
Albert Heijn
American Express
AMEV
ANWB
Apple Pay
ASN Bank
Atos
Autoriteit Financiële Markten
Bank Giro Central
Bank of America
Bank of Beijing
BeaNet
Belfius
BMW
Buckaroo
Bunq
CCV
Chipknip
CM Payments
De Bijenkorf
De Nederlandsche Bank
De Volksbank
Diners Club
Discover
DNB
Dutch Payments Association
DZ Bank
ECB
Elavon
EMS
Equens
EquensWorldline
Eurocard
European Central Bank
European Merchant Services
First Data
Fiserv
Fortis Group
Garmin Pay
Global Payments
Google Pay
ICS
iDEAL
iDEAL QR
ING
Ingenico
International Card Services
Interpay
JCB
KBC
Klarna
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Knab
Maestro
Mastercard
Mid-State Bank & Trust
Mollie
Monese
MultiSafepay
N26
Nationale-Nederlanden
Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets
Openbank
Pacific State Bank
Pay.nl
Payconiq
Payone
PayPal
Paysquare
PPRO
Rabobank
RaboDirect
RegioBank
Revolut
Royal Dutch Touring Club
Samsung Pay
Single Supervisory Mechanism
SIX Payment Services
SNS
SSM
Stripe
Tikkie
TMB Bank
Transaktioninstitut für Zahlungsdiensleistungen
TSYS
UnionPay
V PAY
Van Lanschot
Visa
VSB Bank
Worldline
Worldpay

MORE EUROPE CARDS & PAYMENTS REPORTS

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