In order to satisfy issuers’ requirement for accurate, credible, and relevant benchmarking information, Argus launched the Canadian Credit Card Payments Study in 2010, which is the broadest and deepest dataset of its kind. Participants also benefit from access to the US and UK datasets, which contain almost 1 billion accounts ranging from credit cards, private label cards, and lines of credit.
Argus’s benchmarking data makes it possible to evaluate an issuer’s programs relative to customized benchmarks of similar programs. Issuers are able to compare their portfolios to peers on many dimensions across the customer lifecycle, including:
- The competitive positioning of new account pricing, line assignment, and promotional offer usage
- Ongoing line management strategies, including line assignment by risk score band, line increases and decreases, and utilization
- Strategies for balance generation, including the use of promotional rates among mature customers, spending generation, balance transfer and cash advance activity, and payment behavior
- Fee assessment practices, including the strictness of punitive fee assessment, average fee amounts, and waiver rates
- Risk management performance, including account- and asset-level roll rates, balance control ratios, payment behavior, and charge-off performance.
