Visa, Mastercard share against domestic solutions in 16 countries in Europe 2024

Visa and Mastercard had varying market shares across 16 different European countries in 2024, sometimes significantly lower than domestic payment cards. Visa was the largest card issuer in Ireland, with a market share of ** percent. Mastercard, on the other hand, held market shares of ** percent and ** percent in the Netherlands and Sweden, respectively. Unlike the United States, Visa and Mastercard are often associated with debit cards in Europe. Indeed, debit card use is more prevalent than the use of credit cards in Europe, as revealed by estimates on credit cards and debit cards per capita in 37 European countries.

Visa is Europe’s biggest payment brand...

Across all considered European payment figures, Visa outperforms Mastercard. In 2023, ** percent of all all transactions were done with Visa general purpose cards, while MasterCard made up for ** percent of the market. While Visa remained the dominant brand, its market share dropped notably in recent years, from ** percent in 2015 to ** percent in 2023.

... but in name only, as Europe’s payment landscape is complicated.

When looking at European countries individually, however, the market shares of Visa and Mastercard varied dramatically. In Germany, for example, the domestic card brand Girocard had a market share of ** percent, whereas Visa and Mastercard each made up around ** and ** percent of the market. Italy, on the other hand, was more divided. Bancomat cards made up ** percent of transactions, whereas Mastercard and Visa each held a market share of approximately ** and ** percent. Market shares for either Visa or Mastercard are not readily available in France as the term “bank card” or carte bancaires (derived from the domestic payment brand CB) is not associated with a particular brand in French language.