Press releases _

Purchases with Cards climbed by 18% in 2005
Card expenditure represents around 9% of overall household spending
Madrid, Spain – February, 2006

1 Purchases made with cards issued by the financial institutions that are members of ServiRed (*) totalled €48.577 billion in 2005, which represents an increase of 17.9% compared to the previous year. That evolution is in keeping with past growth trends where this particular alternative to cash payments is concerned.

The members of ServiRed closed the year having issued 34.6 million cards (6.1% more than in the previous year), and with 386,339 active point-of-sale terminals in shops and 29,244 cash machines.

In terms of percentages, the level of card use for purchases rose to a somewhat lesser degree as regards the number of transactions performed, increasing by 12.9% over the course of the year. The rate in question is lower than that of the volume in euros due to the fact that the average amount of each purchase increased by 4.5% to €51.09. Expenditure per card rose by 11.2% to an annual total of €1,400.

Despite the continuing increase in spending with cards, the activity still represents a low percentage of overall consumption in Spanish homes. On the basis of the most recent data on that indicator published by the INE (National Statistics Institute), which refers to the third quarter of the year, the penetration of the use of ServiRed cards for purchases reached 9.04%. In 2004, the penetration of purchases made with cards stood at 8.53%, almost a point above the figure of 7.64% corresponding to 2003.

Of particular note among the data on purchases with cards is the increase over the course of the year in purchases made by Spanish ServiRed card holders in other countries, the total sum of which rose by a figure of 41.4% for the year to more than €3 billion. Meanwhile, purchases made by foreigners in ServiRed establishments continued to grow at a slower rate, specifically 8.8%, although the overall figure of €4.45 billion was higher.

The use of ServiRed cards by Spanish citizens in other countries makes it possible to deduce the most popular destinations. In terms of amounts, Great Britain leads the way with €486 million, accounting for 19.67% of the total spent abroad. It is followed by France with 14.89%, the USA with 10.42%, Andorra with 9.45%, Italy with 6.60% and Germany with 5.61%.

Where purchases made by foreigners in Spanish establishments with ServiRed terminals are concerned, the order is very similar. With a figure of over €1.146 billion, British citizens remain the biggest spenders, accounting for 25.82% of foreigners’ total outlay with cards in ServiRed establishments. They are followed by the French, whose purchases stood at €893 million, representing 20.12% of the total. The Germans, meanwhile, have overtaken the citizens of the USA, accounting for 10.04% and 7.98% respectively. Next are the Italians with 4.31% and the Portuguese with 3.53% of the total.

Use in cash machines

Withdrawals of money from cash machines using ServiRed cards, another of the major activities carried out with cards, increased over the course of the year by 8.7% in terms of amounts and by 4% in terms of the number of transactions performed, to stand at more than €54 billion and 513 million transactions. The average amount per withdrawal was around €107, compared to €100 for the previous year. The number of transactions per card fell by 2%.

81.72% of the cash withdrawn using ServiRed cards in Spain was taken from the cash machines of the financial institution that had issued the card in question, 16.27% from the cash machines of other financial institutions in the same network and 2% from cash machines in other networks. The amounts of cash withdrawn in foreign countries by holders of ServiRed cards accounted for 0.5% of the total, representing a little more than €628 million.

(*) At the end of the year, the ServiRed payment system encompassed 103 member financial institutions, between banks, building societies and credit cooperatives.