Austria Country Report

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Published Date: March 2021

Austria Payments Research | Country Report 2021 | 56 Pages

Table of Contents

An expert 2021 report on the Austria cards, payments and consumer banking market, with clear commentary backed by relevant data.
Offered by all the main banks, P2P solution Zoin has become popular; establishment offerings have so far been keeping consumers sufficiently satisfied that the new breed of digital players has not captured their custom.
Card spend grew sharply upon the pandemic's arrival, with the shift away from cash now pronounced and the debit card set to be the main beneficiary. Acquirers are increasingly providing merchants with full-service, fix-it-and-forget-it solutions; more and more, this includes BNPL, which, as in many markets, is gaining traction.

What you will learn from this 2021 Austria cards market report:

How the main banks are meeting the digital challenge
Where e-invoices fit in the online payments mix
Why credit card losses are low
How consumers are responding to mobile offerings

AUSTRIA CARDS & PAYMENTS REPORT | KEY FACTS

Austria has traditionally been a cash economy, but strong contactless adoption and growing use of mobile payments suggest this is changing, with Covid-19 a new accelerant.
Total consumer expenditure has been negatively affected by the pandemic, but growth in e-commerce spend and migration to cards at the POS has helped alleviate the impact.
Debit card purchase volume grew by 11 per cent in 2020, bucking the global trend among developed markets as habitual cash users turned to cards.
The average adult made 157 card purchases in 2020, double the number five years before. More than two-thirds of all card-present transactions in 2020 were contactless.
The country has an unusual retail banking structure with newly restructured savings and cooperative banks to the fore.
Credit cards are a niche product used mainly for online purchases and travel expenses. The reduction in travel in 2020 caused an overall decline of 16 per cent on card billings.
The proportion of cross-border, B2C e-commerce purchases here is one of the highest in the EU. Alternative online methods, such as e-invoice and bank transfers, are popular.
Mastercard holds a narrow lead over Visa in the credit card segment and has a virtual monopoly in debit cards.
Banks in Austria primarily issue credit cards through two centralised card companies: PayLife and Card Complete.
Worldline and Card Complete Service Bank together dominate the merchant acquiring market.

Austria Payments Research | Report Contents

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: Austria Payments Data Tables

Appendix I: Demographics and the economy

Demographic and economic indicators
Data table 1: Demographic and economic indicators: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 2: Ownership of key consumer devices: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 3: Internet usage by population: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.

Appendix II: Payments environment

Data table 4: Access points: 2014-2019: Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 5: Account penetration: 2014-2019: Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 6: Consumer payment: trends 2014-2019: Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 7: B2C e-commerce payment methods: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.

Appendix III: Cards market

Data table 8: Total cards payment metrics: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 9: Contactless cards metrics: 2014-2019: Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 10: Credit card numbers: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 11: Total credit cards metrics: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 12: Credit cards profitability indicators: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 13: Debit cards numbers: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 14: Debit cards metrics: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 15: Pre-paid/e-money card metrics: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.

Appendix IV: Profit pool

Data table 16: Austria market profit pool: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023. Inc. credit card numbers, billed volumes, oustandings, interest incomes, net interest revenues, merchant revenues, card fee revenues, other non-interest incomes, total revenues, net credit losses, operating expenses, total expenses, pre-tax profits, merchant service charges, rollover rates, APR, net credit losses to outstandings, operating costs to revenues, ROA (pre-tax profits to outstandings).

Appendix V: Card networks

Data table 17: Networks' credit card market shares: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 18: Networks' credit card data numbers: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 19: Networks' credit card billed volume: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 20: Networks' number of credit card transactions: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 21: Networks' average credit card transaction value: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 22: Credit card interchange fees by network: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 23: Networks' debit card market shares: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 24: Networks' debit card data numbers: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 25: Networks' debit card billed volume: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 26: Networks' number of debit card transactions: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 27: Networks' average debit card transaction value: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 28: Debit card interchange fees by network: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.

Appendix VI: Key retail banks and issuers

Data table 29: Key credit card issuers market shares by credit card numbers: 2016-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 30: Key issuers market shares in credit card outstandings: 2016-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.
Data table 31: Key debit card issuers market shares by debit card numbers: 2016-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2021.

Appendix VII: Acquirers and processing

Data table 32: Merchant acquirer credit card market share: 2016-2019. Estimates to 2020.
Data table 33: Credit card merchant service charges: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 34: Merchant acquirer debit card market share: Estimates to 2020.
Data table 35: Debit card merchant service charges: 2014-2019. Estimates and forecasts to 2023.
Data table 36: Credit card issuer/issuing processor relationships
Data table 37: Credit card acquirer/acquiring processor relationships
Data table 38: Credit card issuing processor market shares by card numbers: Estimates to 2020.
Data table 39: Credit card acquiring processor market shares by the number of POS transactions: Estimates to 2020.

Appendix VIII: Online acquiring

Data table 40: Online merchant acquirer market share. Estimates to 2020.

Austria Country Report | Selected Extracts

Demographics and Economy:
Austria's population expansion is due primarily to migration, as births and deaths in the country are largely balanced. As of June 2020, around 1.5 million of the total population were non- Austrian, constituting around 17%.

Payments Environment:
Card payments are the most popular cashless payment method. At the end of 2019, there were almost 14 million payments cards in use in the country. Of these, over 10 million were debit cards.

Cards market:
Cash remains the predominant payment mode in Austria: this is linked to traditional preferences and debt-averse attitudes. However, payment preferences are gradually changing.

Mobile Payments:
Mobile payments are increasingly popular in Austria but, like most advanced economies, their adoption is mired by consumer apathy. Mobile payment providers have found it difficult to incentivise a switch to mobile payments from cards.

Profit Pool:
In Austria, when revolving credit facilities are used, the monthly rollover rates are low, at around 15% of the outstanding balance in 2020. Due to the low uptake of revolving balance cards. Austria's percentage of credit card outstandings to billed volume is low.

Card Networks:
Austria has a competitive credit cards market, with four major international brands – Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Diners Club – having a presence. UnionPay and JCB enjoy wide merchant acceptance in this market. The domestic debit cards market here is a virtual monopoly, with Mastercard accounting for almost all debit cards and transactions.

Key Retail Banks and Issuers:
The payment cards market in Austria is also concentrated among five key players: Bank Austria, Erste Bank, RBI, Volksbank and BAWAG PSK ... they collectively represented vast market share majorities in terms of credit cards in issue and outstandings.

Acquiring and Processing:
Worldline and Card Complete Service Bank together dominate the merchant acquiring market in Austria. Other acquirers include Hobex and Ingenico Payone.

Online Acquiring:
(Austria is one of the largest e-commerce markets in Central Europe, with an estimated internet penetration of 89% in 2019. Total online acquired billed volume reached an estimated $5.1 billion in 2020.

Regulatory and Markets Information:
In Austria, banking and other financial services are regulated by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), in cooperation with the central bank, OeNB (Oesterreichische Nationalbank). The OeNB monitors the stability of the financial market at a macro level.

Austria Payments Report | Entities Referenced

Adyen
Amazon.de
American Express
Apple Pay
Association for Cooperation in Payment Transfers
Austrian Financial Market Authority
B + S
Bank Austria
BAWAG PSK
Bawag PSK
Billa
BKS Bank
Bluecode
BML Group
BNP Paribas
Boon
BTV Bank
Bunq
Card Complete
Card Complete Service Bank
Cardis International
CardMobile
Chief Information Office
Deutsche Kreditbank
Deutscher Sparkassenverlag
Diners Club
DKB
Easybank
eBay
Edenred
Elba Pay
Electronic Payment Standard-Transfer
eps-Überweisung
Erste Bank
Erste MobilePay
Erste Sparkasse
European Banking Authority
European Insurance and Occupational Pension Schemes
European Securities and Markets Authority
Facebook
FMA
George
Gewerkschaft -ffentlicher Dienst
Giropay
Globus
G-D
Google Pay
Hello Bank!
Hobex
Hogast
Hypo Banken
iDEAL
Immigon
Ingenico Payone
JCB
Klarna
LiveBank
Mastercard
Mini Market
Ministry of Finance
Monese
mPAY24
N26
Nexi
NIKI
Oberbank
OeNB
Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Ogone
Pay now by Klarna
PayLife
Payment Services Austria
Payone
PayPal
PSA
Raiffeisen Bank International
Raiffeisen Landesbank Oberösterreich
RatePAY
RBI
Reiter Betten und Vorhänge
Revolut
SIA
SIX Payment Services
Sofort
Spar
STUZZA
SwatchPay
Swish
Trustly
Uni Markt Handels
UniCredit Group
UnionPay
VBAG
Vienna Airport
VIMPay
Visa
Visa Service Kreditkarten
VolksBank Pay
Volksbank Wien
Volksbanken
Willhaben
Worldline
Worldpay
Zielpunkt Warenhandels
Zoin

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