Central & Eastern European pre paid debit card market
Spending on prepaid payment cards in Europe is estimated to reach US$164 billion by 2010, according to new Boston Consulting Group (BCG) research commissioned by MasterCard Europe The research also reveals that whilst the UK is predicted to become Europe's largest single market for prepaid card payments by volume, Russia and Poland are set to witness the deepest penetration of prepaid spending as a proportion of total spend made using payment cards.
The UK is closely followed by Italy where total spending is estimated to hit US$33 billion (5.1% of the global total and the fifth largest in the world) and France, with an estimated total spend of US$27 billion (4.2 per cent of the global total and the seventh largest in the world).
It is in Eastern Europe, however, where prepaid spending is set to make the biggest impact as a proportion of total payment card spend. In Poland, total prepaid spend is estimated to reach US$11 billion, equivalent to 14.1% of spend using payments in the country as a whole.
The BCG research also shows that in Russia, the anticipated total prepaid spend of US$23 billion represents a 12.6% share of the domestic market. According to the research, both markets rank well ahead of their Western European neighbours, including Germany, where domestic market penetration is estimated to reach 7.7% (US$26 billion).
