Ecuador Cards & Payments Market Report

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Demographics and the economy
Payments environment
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
• Ecuador 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

• 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

Demographics and Economy
The Republic of Ecuador has a relatively young population, with 29% under the age of 15 and just 8% over 64. The average age for the total population is 28.8 years, and life expectancy is 77.5 years.

Payments Environment
Ecuador's payments environment developed positively between 2014 and 2020, especially in terms of reducing the unbanked population, increasing usage of electronic channels and expanding access-points coverage.

Cards Market
Between 2014 and 2020, the number of debit cards grew by 69% while credit cards grew by 15%. For 2021, VFR forecasts around 4.8% growth for debit cards in issue and around 5.9% growth for credit cards.

Mobile Payments
Ecuador's high mobile phone density has created an opportunity for the development of mobile money services ... In 2018, the government announced an agreement with banks and savings and loans cooperatives to develop new mobile money services.

Profit Pool
The continuous reduction of the operating cost-to-revenue ratio between 2017 and 2020 has supported the continuous increase of profit per credit card from $39 in 2014 up to $83 in 2019.

Card Networks
Visa and Mastercard dominate the credit cards market in Ecuador, with competition from a sizeable number of Diners Club and American Express cards. Visa and Mastercard dominate the debit cards market with over 99% of cards in issue.

Key Retail Banks and Issuers
After the US dollar was adopted as Ecuador's currency, the number of banks in the country remained relatively constant, with Banco del Pacifico as the only state-owned retail banking institution.

Acquiring and Processing
There are eleven acquirers operating in this credit cards market, including Diners Club, Banco del Pacifico, Banco Pichincha and Banco de Guayaquil. VFR estimates that they jointly hold an 88% market share of total transactions and 81% of total billed volume.

Online Acquiring
Between 2014 and 2020, Ecuador's internet business to consumer (B2C) sales grew by 6.2 times reaching $3,120 million, of which, 78% were made with payment cards.

Regulatory and Markets Information
The Ecuadorian financial system is composed of banks, financial corporations, savings and loans cooperatives, mutualists and public financial institutions. According to their regulator, banks constitute the largest and most important participants in the market.