Big 4 Q2/14 Outstandings
Among the Big 4 Visa and MasterCard issuers for the second quarter, Chase posted the strongest gain of 1.4% Y/Y and Capital One came in second place with a 1.0% Y/Y gain. Bank of America and Citibank posted Y/Y declines of 1.7% and 2.9%, respectively. The reason for the sluggish growth is simply more Americans see bank credit cards as bank payments cards. This trend is also confirmed by a recent ABA study which found the share of cardholders who are transactor increased from 28.6% to 29.0% this year, the highest share on record.