Dive Brief:

• Payments volume on Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover consumer and commercial cards issued in the U.S. rose 6.4% to $11.46 trillion last year over 2024, according to the industry research firm Nilson Report. The volume includes credit, debit and prepaid cards.
• The volumes for just credit cards issued in the U.S. by those card companies climbed a lesser 6.1% last year over 2024 to $6.51 trillion, according to data compiled and presented in the Nilson Report’s February issue. Visa captured the largest market share overall, and for the credit and debit segments.
• “There's a surprising amount of new transactions as Visa and Mastercard really work to expand the merchant acceptance side of the business,” Nilson Report publisher and owner David Robertson said in an interview last month. “In partnership with those aggregators like Stripe, Square, etc., etc., we’re making it easier for smaller businesses to get into the market.”

Dive Insight:

The Nilson Report data shows that card issuers and networks continue to thrive in the marketplace despite digital innovations that have threatened to slow their growth. The volume increase last year was bigger than the 5.9% jump in 2024, compared to 2023, when the activity rose to $10.77 trillion.

While upstart digital rivals like Stripe and Block’s Square also provide services to help merchants process payments, and digital wallets offered by PayPal and Block’s Cash App give consumers new tools, they all frequently still tap traditional credit or debit cards. Part of what those new digital companies are accomplishing is smoothing the way to let smaller businesses process payments.

With more of those smaller merchants processing card payments, “it allows all of us to make more transactions, Robertson said. “That rising tide is carrying all boats.”

San Francisco-based Visa dominated the market last year, as it has in the past, handling 31% of debit transactions on U.S. issued cards, and 30% of credit transactions, according to the Nilson Report. Purchase, New York-based Mastercard ranked second, with a 14% credit card market share and 12% debit card market share.

Visa made decisions in the past to pick certain financial institutions as card issuing partners and then to work with them to grow the business, Robertson explained. One of those bank partners is JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the U.S. Visa also forged deals with retailers, including Costco Wholesale, and arranged exclusive sponsorships, like sponsoring the Winter Olympics in Milan this year, to build its position in the market, he noted.