CMSPI STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT
Debit Cards Leads The Way In 2025
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In our final scorecard, debit card scores highest because of its strong performance in security, user experience and ubiquitous acceptance relative to other payment methods. The impressive functionality of card shines through here: the well-established chargeback dispute resolution mechanism protects consumers and assigns accountability for fraud, card’s pre-authorization and recurring payments functionality is very helpful for several payments use cases, and card’s global acceptance network enables consumers and merchants to freely trade in a way that no other payment method can compete with today. However, card does not perform as well on cost metrics, particularly credit cards, despite very high volumes and economies of scale. In the State of the Industry Report 2024, we estimated card fees in the United States to total $222 billion in 2023 iii , and our updated analysis here suggests this number reached $236 billion in 2024. Card’s centralized governance model does not score well, largely because it does not offer explicit voting rights to wider stakeholder groups such as consumers and merchants. The Chasing Pack Despite card’s strong standing in retail payments today, our analysis suggests there is a growing popularity of digital payment methods in countries such as China, India and Brazil that cannot be ignored. China’s WeChat and Alipay are the poster children of digital wallets. With rapid volume growth, relatively low cost for merchants and a popular QR-code based user experience, staged/stored value digital wallets score 17.1 and come third in our rankings. Real Time Payments had seen little success in C2B payments 10 years ago but now boasts two successful use cases in two of the world’s top 10 economies: UPI, launched in India in 2016, and Pix, launched in Brazil in 2020. In 2025 alone, we’ve seen Pix develop contactless and recurring payment functionality, rapidly closing the gap to cards in our scoring matrix. Overall RTP comes sixth in our rankings but it’s one to watch and may score higher in the future as solutions develop further and become more mature. The $222 billion in card fees in 2023 is a revision from our original $224 billion estimate in the State of the Industry Report 2024 given updated data. See the Card Profile in Section 2 for more information. iii
PAYMENT METHOD SCORECARD
Disclaimer: The following section outlines justifications for the scoring of each of the payment methods included in this thought experiment. CMSPI recognizes there is variation across markets and payment method brands. Our scoring is based on samples and use cases found in research and data available and by no means is entirely inclusive of the global payments landscape. These scores do not reflect individual Insights Advisory Council members’ acceptance strategies or preferences. We are aware that stablecoins are not heavily used as a retail payment method; however, their potential and increased spotlight made them an interesting addition to the analysis. The recent interest in stablecoin’s potential and regulatory status is on our radar and will be reflected in later updates of the scorecard. All feedback about the scoring is welcome and encouraged as we continue to expand our awareness of global payments and seek to create a better payments ecosystem.
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