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Spain's banks have invested in migrating to EMV technology in 2010, increasing security and reducing fraud
SERVIRED CARD PURCHASES RECOVERED BY 3.8% LAST YEAR, BUT REMAINED AT THE LEVEL OF 2008
Cards issued by ServiRed's member banks and financial institutions* were used to make purchases worth 65,000 million euros in 2010, a 3.8% recovery from the 2009 when the economic slump pushed consumer spending sharply lower. However, total ServiRed card purchases remained at the level of 2008, In addition, they accounted for only 10.12% of total household spending in Spain.
Purchases made with all bank cards issued in Spain amounted to just 16.8% of total consumer spending, showing that the country still lags far behind most of its European neighbours in the quest to replace cash with cards in purchases.
The ServiRed figures for 2010 also show an increase of nearly 5% in the number of card purchases and 8.7% in purchases per card, while the average purchase amount rose by only 1% from the level posted a year ago, despite higher prices of consumer goods.
The banks and financial institution members of ServiRed, Spain's leading card payments scheme, had a total of 38 million cards issued at the end of 2010, which was 3.5% below the number level of the previous year. Members acquired card transactions on behalf of a total of 747,730 merchants, and operated 32,792 ATMs.
Purchases made with ServiRed cards abroad came to 5,400 million euros in 2010, an 11.2% increase, thanks both to foreign travel and to shopping on websites located outside Spain.
The United Kingdom accounted for 23.45% of these purchases, its share increasing by 11.23% in the year. It was followed by France, with 13.66% (+5.12%).
Purchases made with foreign cards at Spanish merchants using ServiRed terminals increased by 11.2% in 2010, reaching 6,500 million euros.
For the second consecutive year the French were the biggest spenders, followed by the British, who for years were leaders in card purchases in Spain. The share of purchases made with French-issued cards rose by 11.44% to 23.83 points, while the British share declined by 3.88% to 14.95 points. Germany was in a distant third place with 9 points.
ATM Cash Withdrawals
There was a 1.6% drop in the total amount of cash withdrawn from ServiRed ATMs in 2010, which reached to a total of 61,139 million euros. But this can be interpreted positively in terms of cash substitution, since for the third year running the total amount of ServiRed card purchases outstripped that of cash withdrawals. In 2010 the number of cash withdrawals was nearly one-third less than that of card purchase transactions.
Of total cash withdrawn, 85.7% corresponded to the institution that issued the card, 12.3% to other ATMs belonging to other ServiRed members, and 0.8% to non-ServiRed cash points. ServiRed cardholders withdrew 773 million euros from ATMs abroad, which amounted to 1.2% of total withdrawals in the 2010.
Investment in Technology and Combating Fraud
The year saw many ServiRed member institutions migrate to EMV chip cards, which are now supported by 100% of ATMs and 94% of point-of-sale terminals. Investment in the change of terminals and cards was gradual but substantial. A total of 26.6 million chip cards were issued.
The move to the new technology added a new security mechanism to those already being used to combat card fraud. The incidence of such fraud involving ServiRed member terminals is already among the lowest in the world, and the advance figures for 2010 indicate that fraudulent transactions amounted to less than 0.03% of the total.
(*) At the end of 2010 ServiRed has 101 member banks, savings banks, and credit cooperatives.
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