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The volume transacted with credit, debit and prepaid cards totaled R$2.65 trillion in 2021, an increase of 33.1% over the previous year, according to figures released Thursday by the Brazilian Association of Credit Card and Services Companies (Abecs). This year, the forecast is that the industry will advance 21%, a smaller growth but still robust when considering the macroeconomic scenario.
Of the total transacted last year, R$1.6 trillion refer to credit cards, up 36.6% over 2020. Debit totaled R$916.3 billion, an increase of 20.2%, and prepaid services, R$117.1 billion, a growth of 158.5%. There were 31.1 billion transactions in the year, 33.4% more than in 2020.
In the fourth quarter alone, card payments totaled R$796.5 billion, an increase of 30.7% year over year. According to the association, the sector has been sustaining the level of growth, stimulated by the digitalization of the economy and the recovery of consumption of goods and, mainly, services.
Payment-by-approximation was a highlight in the 2021 earnings reports. This payment method transacted R$198.9 billion, an amount 384.6% higher than in the previous year. Of this total, R$111.1 billion was spent using credit cards, an annual growth even higher of 489.1%. According to Abecs, one in four face-to-face transactions with credit cards is already done by approximation. And the expectation is that this level will continue to rise, reaching 50% by the end of the year.
In addition, remote purchases by card totaled R$569.7 billion, up 30.8% over 2020. Of the total, R$550.1 billion were credit operations, a modality in which there was an increase of 41.7%. Debit transactions totaled R$13.5 billion, a fall of 69.3%. According to the president of Abecs, Pedro Coutinho, this decline can be explained by factors such as the lower purchasing power of families and the effect of the Pix on the modality.
“With the advance of digital transformation, online purchases are gaining even more relevance, and the card is responsible for enabling a huge market of sales and services through e-commerce and applications. Currently, non-face-to-face payments represent 35% of all spending with credit cards,” says Abecs in a statement.
The sector believes in robust growth of the card industry, in the double digits, until 2025, said Coutinho. In 2022, Abecs says that the credit concessions on cards will remain at high levels, favored by low default rates and the economic recovery itself.
For the executive, the credit card delinquency rate will grow this year, but is not expected to reach the levels of the past, around 8%. Today, it is close to 5% “due to better assessment of credit and risk management,” he says. “The industry today has a very good capacity for granting credit.”
The slowdown in growth in 2022 is likely to come in the wake of many challenges, such as inflation, increases in the basic interest rate, which may impact credit concessions and retail sales, the low level of economic growth, and the electoral scenario. Despite this, the outlook for the sector is positive, adds Coutinho.
Among the factors that benefit the card industry, the association cites the consolidation of the habit of Brazilians “to make a relevant part of their transactions in a non-presential way” and the expectation of persistent growth of the payment by proximity throughout the year. There is also the recovery of services and household consumption.
Abecs sees a 20.5% increase in the values transacted via credit card this year, to R$3.2 trillion. It also projects an increase of 11.5% in debit and 100% in prepaid.
Source: Valor International