Nilson in the News
Relevant and respected. The Nilson Report is quoted by more business news publications than any other in the payments industry.
A sampling of the articles where our proprietary data has been featured this past 12 months appears below.
Aug 19, 2022
Venmo, Zelle, Visa, Mastercard, and you: The fiery fight over the future of swipe fees
"Altogether, merchants paid credit card companies more than $137 billion in processing fees (debit and credit) during 2021, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Aug 12, 2022
Mastercard Faces Retailer Backlash Over Installment Payments
"Merchants have grown increasingly vocal about the cost of accepting electronic payments, with processing fees soaring to $137.8 billion last year alone, according to industry publication The Nilson Report." > See Article
Aug 10, 2022
Apple Card’s rapid growth, outside vendors blamed for mishaps within Goldman’s credit-card business
"...Outstanding loans by Goldman nearly doubled last year, according to the Nilson Report."
> See Article
Jul 27, 2022
Visa, Mastercard Swipe Fees Targeted in Planned Senate Bill
"These fees often amount to just pennies per transaction. But, last year alone, merchants paid $137.8 billion in processing fees, up 24% from 2020, according to the industry publication The Nilson Report." > See Article
Jun 28, 2022
Wells Fargo plays up rewards with new Autograph card "Wells Fargo ranked among the top three debit card issuers in 2020, but it stood at No. 8 in the credit card market, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Jun 28, 2022
Wells Fargo plays up rewards with new Autograph card "Wells Fargo ranked among the top three debit card issuers in 2020, but it stood at No. 8 in the credit card market, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Jun 6, 2022
Global chip shortages drive increased costs for contactless card manufacturers and issuers
"The price of EMV-compliant chips supplied to contactless payment card manufacturers increased by more than 50% in 2021 and is expected to rise by more than 20% during 2022 with the overall cost to card issuers for finished first-use plastic cards rising by between 5% and 20% during 2021, according to US research firm The Nilson Report." > See Article
May 24, 2022
Is Your Business Ready for ‘Chargeback-tivism’?
"Along with organized criminals who use the chargeback system as part of account takeovers and related fraudulent activities, such “friendly fraud” disputes are now a major expense for businesses, which lost a total of $28.58 billion to payment card fraud in 2020, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
May 18, 2022
FIS knocks Fiserv out of No. 2 merchant acquirer spot
"David Robertson, publisher of The Nilson Report, attributed Fiserv’s slide in the ranking to the end of a joint venture it had inherited. That joint venture had been between First Data – acquired by Brookfield, Wisconsin-based Fiserv in 2019 – and Bank of America, but the companies announced they were dissolving it that same year, with the break-up happening in June 2020. That affected Fiserv’s share among merchant acquirers."
> See Article
May 18, 2022
Two-Card Monte: Why Mastercard And Visa Rarely Shut Down Scammers Who Are Ripping Off Consumers
"In 2020, credit card fraud accounted for an estimated $10 billion in the US alone." > See Article
May 10, 2022
New Innovations—Including Crypto Cards—Energizing The ‘Dying’ Credit Card Market
"The use of physical cards may decline, but there is simply too much supply and demand for credit in the market. In fact, the Nilson Report projects that credit card purchase volume in the US will grow 39% between 2021 and 2026, with outstandings increasing by 35% over the same period." > See Article
Apr 27, 2022
Bitcoin Payments: The Beginning of Something Extraordinary
Card fraud alone is expected to reach about $40 billion per year for the next decade, according to the Nilson Report. In the same report, Nilson also calls out the problem of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) available for sale on the dark web. > See Article
Apr 26, 2022
Your no annual fee credit card is costing you $700 a year, US retailers say
"Over the past 10 years, swipe fees have more than doubled to $137.8 billion in 2021, according to the Nilson Report."
> See Article
Apr 26, 2022
Why you now need to carry a wad of cash to dine out in NYC
With increasingly thin profit margins, general inflation and rising credit card fees — merchants in the US paid $137.83 billion in processing costs in 2021, up 24.3% from the prior year, according to a Nilson report — it’s yet another way for restaurants to try and stay afloat in challenging times. > See Article
Apr 22, 2022
Visa and Mastercard have already cut ties with Russian banks. Now China’s largest credit card brand might be pulling out too
UnionPay, launched in 2002, is a state-led financial services network operated by China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, and is the world’s second largest card brand with a 32% market share, according to 2020 data from the Nilson Report. > See Article
Apr 15, 2022
Visa, Mastercard Fees to Hurt Consumers, Sen. Dick Durbin Says
"U.S. merchants paid card issuers an estimated $55.4 billion in Visa and Mastercard credit-card interchange fees last year, more than double the amount in 2012, according to the Nilson Report, a trade publication." > See Article
Apr 13, 2022
How To Get Fraudulent Charges Removed From Your Credit Card
"According to (the) Nilson Report, credit card fraud losses reached about $28.58 billion worldwide in 2020, with the U.S. alone responsible for more than a third of the total global loss." > See Article
Apr 7, 2022
There was no stopping credit card fee hikes this year
"The card industry research firm The Nilson Report issued a report this month showing a sizable increase in credit card fees last year. "Merchants (in the U.S.) paid $105.23 billion in processing fees to accept credit cards last year, an increase of 25.1%," the report said." > See Article
Apr 3, 2022
Visa changes rules for gas stations to avoid $125 pump limit
"In 2020, merchants paid $110 billion to accept electronic payments, a 5.2% decline from a year earlier, according to the Nilson Report, a trade publication. That drop came even as spending on cards rose overall in 2020, the latest for which data is available." > See Article
Apr 1, 2022
Visa Changes Rules for Gas Stations to Avoid $125 Pump Limit
"In 2020, merchants paid $110 billion to accept electronic payments, a 5.2% decline from a year earlier, according to the Nilson Report, a trade publication." > See Article
Mar 18, 2022
Paynovate taps iDenfy´s ID verification solution
"According to the press release, credit card fraud remains at the top of the fraudsters’ list. A Nilson Report reveals that this form of identity theft is expected to reach USD 12.5 billion in card fraud losses in the US by 2025." > See Article
Mar 15, 2022
5 Buy-Rated Warren Buffett Dividend Stocks Have Big Upside Potential as Interest Rates Move Higher
"According to Nilson estimates, Mastercard is the third-largest global credit and debit network, as measured by volume." > See Article
Mar 11, 2022
What is UnionPay? China’s alternative to Visa and Mastercard is a controversial new lifeline for Russians as Western sanctions bite
"Visa is the dominant global card brand by transaction amount, according to 2020 numbers from The Nilson Report..." > See Article
Mar 9, 2022
UnionPay has an opening in Russia
"UnionPay is much larger than you think. It´s already the largest network by number of cards in circulation due to the sheer size of the Chinese economy, said David Robertson, publisher of The Nilson Report. While best known and mostly used inside China, where it has about 90% market share, it is growing outside China as well." > See Article
Mar 9, 2022
Visa and Mastercard´s long-delayed interchange hikes may arrive next month
"...Visa and Mastercard merchant fees reached an estimated $55.39 billion last year—more than double the 2012 total, per The Nilson Report." > See Article
Mar 8, 2022
Visa, Mastercard Prepare to Raise Credit-Card Fees
"U.S. merchants paid card issuers an estimated $55.4 billion in Visa and Mastercard credit-card interchange fees in 2021, more than double the amount in 2012, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Mar 8, 2022
Mastercard And Visa Suspend Operations In Russia Over Invasion Of Ukraine
"Mastercard and Visa cards accounted for nearly 74% of card payment transactions in Russia in 2020, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Mar 5, 2022
Visa and Mastercard Suspend Russian Operations
"Among the debit and credit cards issued in Russia, Visa and Mastercard cards accounted for 74% of payment transactions in the country in 2020, according to the Nilson Report, a trade publication." > See Article
Mar 4, 2022
What Are the Biggest Credit Card Companies
"Within our article, we used data provided by the Nilson Report. The organization looked at the 2019 market share for the top credit card issuers based on outstanding card balances. We used this data to compile the list below." > See Article
Mar 1, 2022
Russian Consumers Cut Off From Many Foreign Purchases
"Among the debit and credit cards issued in Russia, Visa and Mastercard cards accounted for 74% of payment transactions in the country in 2020, according to trade publication the Nilson Report." > See Article
Feb 21, 2022
List of credit card companies: major issuers and networks
"In the meantime, the latest Nilson report shows that American Express cards are also accepted at 99 percent of places that accept credit cards around the U.S." > See Article
Feb 18, 2022
Discover backs card-free payments
"Merchants paid $53.6 billion in Visa and Mastercard interchange fees in 2019, per the Nilson Report." > See Article
Feb 17, 2022
8 Biggest U.S. Credit Card Companies This Year
"Credit cards made up more than half of all card purchases and generated $3.61 trillion in purchases in 2020, according to the most recent figures available from The Nilson Report, a newsletter covering the global payment industry." > See Article
Feb 14, 2022
Discover Is Bringing a Payment Option Popular in Asia to the U.S.
"Though its cards are widely accepted, Discover badly lags behind its bigger competitors— Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and American Express Co. It accounted for just 2% of card transactions on major U.S. networks in 2020, according to the Nilson Report. Visa had 65%." > See Article
Feb 11, 2022
Apollo Nears $2.3 Billion Deal for Worldline’s Terminal Business
"Worldline’s terminal business is Europe’s No. 1 provider of point-of-sale terminals technology, based on terminals shipped in 2019, according to Nilson Report. In the U.S., Worldline is the No. 2 player, behind VeriFone, Inc." > See Article
Feb 8, 2022
UnionPay expands pact with Fiserv
"Based on 2020 statistics from industry research firm Nilson Report, UnionPay´s 8.96 billion credit and debit cards in circulation were the most of any company, but San Francisco-based Visa still ranks higher by other measures. Visa´s transaction market share that year was 40% to UnionPay´s 32%, according to Nilson." > See Article
Feb 1, 2022
Buy Now, Pay Later: The New Credit Card Acquisition Channel
"...According to the Nilson Report, however, the 100 largest US issuers of Mastercard and Visa credit cards generated $1.492 trillion in purchase volume in the first half of 2021, up 22% from the first half of 2020." > See Article
Jan 26, 2022
JPMorgan sees Viva Wallet investment as building block in Europe
"JPMorgan is the top e-commerce merchant acquirer in Europe, processing 5 billion web transactions in 2020, out of 22 billion total European web purchases, according to Nilson." > See Article
Jan 24, 2022
A Central Bank Digital Currency Could Improve Payments, Fed Says
"For Visa and Mastercard credit cards—which account for nearly 80% of the U.S. credit card market—swipe fees averaged 2.22% of the purchase price and totaled $61.6 billion in 2020, up 137% over the previous decade, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Jan 20, 2022
Consumers Flock To Mobile Payment Apps, Crypto, And Contactless Payments
"Visa and Mastercard account for nearly 80% of the U.S. credit card market, and swipe fees for Visa and Mastercard credit cards combined totaled $61.6 billion in 2020, up 137% over the past decade, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Jan 20, 2022
Merchants Call on U.S. Regulators to Examine Swipe Fees
"Visa and Mastercard account for nearly 80% of the U.S. credit card market, and swipe fees for Visa and Mastercard credit cards combined totaled $61.6 billion in 2020, up 137% over the past decade, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Jan 20, 2022
CFPB suggests credit card giants may not be playing fair
"...The bureau did not identify the eight largest issuers by name. The list includes American Express, Bank of America, Capital One Financial, Citigroup, Discover Financial Services, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Jan 19, 2022
Retailers Ask U.S. Regulators to Examine Visa, Mastercard Fees
"Retailers now spend more than $110 billion to accept credit and debit cards every year, according to the industry publication the Nilson Report." > See Article
Jan 19, 2022
Fair Isaac : Top 5 Fraud and Financial Crime Topics of 2021
"More recently, in December the Nilson Report quantified global card fraud losses at $28.65 billion. That´s nearly 7 cents per every $100 in spending, representing significant losses across issuers, acquirers, and merchants." > See Article
Jan 19, 2022
MPC Letter Highlights Amazon Action on Visa Credit Cards in UK
"Visa controls only 39 percent of the credit card market in the UK, compared with 55 percent by transaction volume in the United States, while its closest rival, Mastercard, accounts for only 23 percent of the U.S. market. Together, the two account for nearly 80 percent of the U.S. credit card market, and swipe fees for Visa and Mastercard credit cards combined totaled $61.6 billion in 2020, up 137 percent over the past decade, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Jan 19, 2022
MPC Letter Highlights Amazon Action on Visa Credit Cards in UK
"Visa controls only 39 percent of the credit card market in the UK, compared with 55 percent by transaction volume in the United States, while its closest rival, Mastercard, accounts for only 23 percent of the U.S. market. Together, the two account for nearly 80 percent of the U.S. credit card market, and swipe fees for Visa and Mastercard credit cards combined totaled $61.6 billion in 2020, up 137 percent over the past decade, according to the Nilson Report." > See Article
Jan 7, 2022
After Wirecard´s winding-up, what next for the payments sector?
"According to a Nilson report released earlier this quarter, whilst the volume of payment processing increased in 2021, the number of fraudulent claims (by card holders as well as merchants) exploded at a higher rate together with the quantity of chargebacks." > See Article
Dec 16, 2021
Klarna´s account-to-account payments bring greater transaction choice and cut costs
"The A2A integration can help Klarna save on interchange fees—which cost US merchants $44.4 billion last year, per the Nilson Report — helping increase its bottom line." > See Article
Dec 15, 2021
Card industry faces $400B in fraud losses over next decade, Nilson says
"Card fraud over the next decade will cost the industry a collective $408.50 billion in losses globally, according to an annual report from the industry research firm Nilson Report." > See Article
Dec 13, 2021
Stripe vs. Block
"...With the Nilson Report indicating that credit card payments accounted for more than $4 trillion of the payment volume in the United States in 2019, payment processors are an essential service for merchants to do business." > See Article
Dec 10, 2021
How America’s Cashless Economy Has Punished the Homeless for Being Poor
"A 2019 Nilson report found that 82.2% of American adults have a debit card, and 71.67% of American adults have a credit card." > See Article
Dec 9, 2021
Rho raises $75 million Series B for its one-stop corporate spend and cash management solution
"According to the payments-focused Nilson Report, commercial card purchase volume in the U.S. was close to $1.4 trillion this year."
> See Article
Dec 9, 2021
BofA Leans on Private Jets, Supercars to Draw Big Card Spenders
"While the company is America’s second-largest bank and the country’s biggest debit-card issuer, it usually ranks only fifth in credit cards, according to industry publication Nilson Report." > See Article
Dec 7, 2021
Wells Fargo’s Cards Revamp Is ‘Not Rocket Science,’ Scharf Says
"The San Francisco-based firm is unusually lopsided among U.S. card issuers, ranking No. 2 in debit cards but No. 8 in credit cards, according to the Nilson Report newsletter." > See Article
Dec 6, 2021
Artificial Intelligence at American Express – Two Current Use Cases
"...While our research did not identify detailed information about the instances of fraud that AmEx discovers through its AI-enhanced efforts, the company does claim that it has “maintained the lowest fraud rate among the major credit card networks for 14 consecutive years according to the February 2021 Nilson Report.” > See Article
Dec 2, 2021
Will the Amazon-Visa dispute spill over to other credit card companies?
"When it comes to market share for U.S. general purpose credit card use, Visa is by far the leader, according to the industry research firm Nilson Report. For last year, Visa had a 53.7% market share while Mastercard had a 23.2% share, American Express had a 19.2% share and Discover Financial had a 4.0% share, according to a February report from Nilson." > See Article
Nov 24, 2021
List of Credit Card Companies: Top Cards and Issuers
"...the top credit card issuers in the U.S. hold more than 80% of the market share, according to the Nilson Report. In other words, roughly 8 out of 10 credit cards in the U.S. are from one of these issuers..." > See Article
Nov 19, 2021
What Is ´Friendly Fraud´ Costing Your Business?
"Payment card fraud losses, which include both conventional and friendly fraud, rose above $32 billion worldwide this year, up more than a third from 2017 levels, according to the Nilson report." > See Article
Nov 18, 2021
Consumers caught in middle as Amazon, Visa clash over fees
"Visa is the dominant payment network in Europe, with 58% of the market, while MasterCard has 41% and American Express 1%, according to the Nilson Report, an industry publication." > See Article
Nov 16, 2021
Credit card start-up Upgrade jumps 83% in valuation in just four months to $6.28 billion > See Article
Nov 9, 2021
Standard Bank enabled UnionPay contactless payments across South Africa "The Nilson Report (Issue 1154) shows that UnionPay ranks first among all card schemes in terms of cards issuance and transaction volume worldwide." > See Article
Oct 5, 2021
Wells Fargo taps credit-averse customers with Reflect card
"Reflect can help Wells Fargo attract new customers and stop its market share from being eroded by fintechs like digital bank Upgrade.... Upgrade´s flexible card was pegged as the fastest-growing US credit card by outstandings, per the Nilson Report." > See Article
Sept 28, 2021
American Express 2020-2021 Environmental, Social, and Governance Report
American Express "...maintained the lowest fraud rate among the major credit card networks for 14 consecutive years according to the February 2021 Nilson Report." > See Article
Sept 28, 2021
Fitch Removes UCO on NCR Corporation and Related Entities; ´BB-´ IDR Affirmed
"The Nilson Report projects cash usage will decrease from 22% of transactions in the U.S. in 2019 to 12% by 2024." > See Article
Sept 28, 2021
Fitch Removes UCO on NCR Corporation and Related Entities; ´BB-´ IDR Affirmed
"The Nilson Report projects cash usage will decrease from 22% of transactions in the U.S. in 2019 to 12% by 2024." > See Article
Sept 27, 2021
Which companies are set to hit $1 trillion in value next?
"Visa facilitates electronic transfers all around the world. According to the Nilson Report, the company processed 100 billion transactions via its global network, VisaNet, during 2014, worth a total value of $6.8tn." > See Article
Sept 21, 2021
Visa steps up card perks to sustain growth as the US considers life beyond the pandemic
"Last year, Visa held a 40% share in global network purchase volume, with Mastercard trailing at 24%, per the Nilson Report." > See Article
Results for US Card Networks at Midyear–2022
