Card market adds one million cards in 2004

The banks that issue cards ended 2004 with a portfolio of nearly 5.76 million active cards, according to filings with the NBR. The figure is 23% higher than at the end of 2003. Three banks have exceeded the million-card mark, indicating a high level of concentration on the market. The number of cards issued by Bancpost exceeded 1.4 million at the end of January 2005, putting the bank on the number two spot among card issuers, with more than 25% in market share, according to the data released on Tuesday. BCR ranks first, with approximately 1.5 million active cards in its portfolio, while the third bank is BRD, which recently announced its crossing of the one million card threshold. Raiffeisen came in fourth with approximately 850,000 valid cards at the end of 2004. There are 24 banks operating on the card market at the moment, yet only six have attained significant positions, since some banks only started to offer cards as late as the second half of 2004. The main issuers have contracts with both the major card associations: Visa and MasterCard; while some newcomers are working with only one association for now. ZF