2 PAYMENT METHOD PROFILES: CARD
Case Study: France France’s domestic card scheme, Cartes Bancaires (CB), was established in 1984 by a group of issuing banks in France (Banque Nationale de Paris (BILLIONP), Crédit Lyonnais, Société Générale, Crédit Commercial de France, and Crédit Industriel et Commercial), designed to unify and simplify card payments and ATM transactions across banking institutions. With major banks backing the scheme from its inception, CB cards were issued at scale, quickly becoming the standard for French consumers and merchants. This early alignment between issuers, infrastructure, and national objectives created strong network effects that translated into sustained dominance. CB has maintained a sizeable share of the market over time, even in the years preceding the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR), at 86% of transaction value on all cards in 2014. 210 In 2024, CB maintained nearly 80% of France’s total transaction value. 211 A key feature of CB’s structure is its near-universal co-badging with global schemes. As of 2024, nearly 95% of all CB cards carry both the domestic CB brand and an international scheme brand. 212 This enables French consumers to use the same card domestically routed via CB as well as internationally, processed through the global scheme rails. The dual- branding model ensures increased acceptance. Cost competitiveness adds a layer to CB’s routing favorability. The network employs a uniform scheme fee structure applied consistently across all channels, merchant types and processing partners. It is currently set at €0.0275 and 0.06% per transaction. 213 This helps maintain pricing predictability and cost efficiency for merchants relative to variability of fees charged by international networks. In a region where regulatory caps have standardized interchange fees for both debit and credit cards, the scheme and processing fees have become important in managing total cost of acceptance for merchants. Another driver of CB’s growth is its facilitation of on-us transactions known as Deliassage within France. When both the cardholder’s issuing bank and the merchant’s acquirer are members of the CB domestic scheme, transactions can be routed entirely within the CB infrastructure, without involving the international schemes even for co-badged cards. CB operates through a domestic clearing house called STET, that handles the switching and clearing of transactions across various types, including on-us, domestic, and cross-border on both credit and debit cards. This clearing house is unique in that it processes transactions at a national level rather than only on an acquirer ‘merchant-to-merchant’ level. 214 Apart from costs, CB has long been at the forefront of payments innovation. It was the first scheme to develop and implement chip cards in the late 1980s. 215 By 1993, all issued CB cards featured chip technology, replacing magnetic stripes four years before the UK introduced its first smart card pilot program. Smart cards eventually became more widely adopted by European banks in 2006. 216 With the rise of digital wallet usage, CB integrates with popular options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, ensuring its relevance in both physical and digital payment environments. Looking to the future, CB is utilizing STET’s tokenization capabilities and strategic partnerships to implement a Click to Pay solution for banks by 2026. 217
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