Consumer credit card issuers in the U.S. face significant strategic challenges. The US credit card industry has matured and consolidated significantly over the past several years, and industry growth has slowed. The environment for acquisitions is fiercely competitive, magnifying the importance having a clear understanding of the competitive environment as well as developing effective strategies for managing existing customers.

In order to satisfy issuers’ requirement for accurate, credible, and relevant benchmarking information, Argus launched the Credit Card Payments Study. Since its inception in 1997, Argus’ US Credit Card Payments Study has grown to become the most comprehensive source of industry benchmarking information: nineteen issuers provide over 50mm accounts to the study, enabling Argus to create relevant and actionable benchmarking comparisons.

Participants use Argus’ benchmarking data to evaluate their 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
• Evaluating ongoing line management strategies, including line assignment by risk score band, line increases and decreases, and utilization
• Strategies for balance generation, including 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 chargeoff performance

Detailed understanding is enabled by comparisons of issuer performance relative to peers for specific risk, vintage, and product segments. Issuers use insights from the Credit Card Payments Study to take action against a variety of opportunities, yielding improvements in performance and profitability that represent substantial return on investment in the study.

Each participant in US CCPS receives:

• Quarterly benchmarking binders that compare issuer performance to a customized benchmark, including summary performance metrics, full income statements, and drill-down tables detailing profitability, customer behavior, risk, and pricing
• Quarterly executive summaries that describe key benchmarking comparisons identify opportunities for improving performance
• Semi-annual senior management presentations that provide an in-depth review of benchmarking results
• Additional ad-hoc analytic support in which issuers may request customized analyses

Issuers interested in joining the US Credit Card Payments Study typically begin with one year of participation. For more information, please contact Michael Grillo at (914) 307-3147 or mgrillo@argusinformation.com