nilsonreportFeb2022.pdf
Top 50 U.S. Mastercard and Visa Credit Card Issuers
The 50 largest issuers of consumer, small business and commercial credit cards carrying the Visa and Mastercard brands combined owned $683.09 billion in outstanding receivables at year-end 2021. This was an increase of 7.4% from $635.95 billion for the top 50 at year-end 2020. The industry average increase in Visa and Mastercard credit card outstandings for 2021 was 6.4%.
New to the top 50 in 2021 were Upgrade, a fintech, with a 539.5% increase in outstandings; Ally Bank, which bought Fair Square Financial’s credit card business; and Zions Bancorporation, which ranked 51st last year. Among the 50 largest, 41 issuers showed growth in outstandings, including Upgrade (up 539.5%), Goldman Sachs (up 92.3%), Continental Finance (up 70.3%), Mercury Financial (up 28.3%), BMO Harris (up 18.2%), Alliance Data (up 17.0%), Credit One Bank (up 14.6%) and Mountain America FCU (up 12.4%).
When measuring Visa and Mastercard purchase volume, the industry average increase was 25.5% last year. Among the top 50 issuers, the average increase was 24.5%.
Credit unions (CUs) accounted for 13 issuers among the 50 largest ranked by credit card outstandings. At those CU issuers, outstandings were a combined $29.62 billion, which was an increase of 5.8% from year-end 2020.
Purchase Transactions
Billions in 2021
Credit unions accounted for 7 of the top 50 issuers based on purchase volume. Collectively, that group of CUs generated $50.98 billion in purchase volume in 2021, up 35.7% from the prior year.
Top 50 Mastercard & Visa Credit Card Issuers in the U.S.
Ranked by Outstandings in 2021
| Outstandings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISSUER, STATE OF CHARTER | RANK '21 | RANK '20 | MIL. | CHANGE |
| Chase, Delaware | 1 | 1 | $154,296.0 | 7.0% |
| Citi, South Dakota | 2 | 2 | $106,006.8 | 5.5% |
| Capital One, Virginia | 3 | 3 | $98,032.0 | 11.5% |
| Bank of America, Delaware | 4 | 4 | $92,573.5 | 6.1% |
| U.S. Bank, Ohio | 5 | 5 | $39,859.1 | 7.1% |
| Wells Fargo, South Dakota | 6 | 6 | $33,402.0 | 5.8% |
| Barclays, Delaware | 7 | 7 | $22,119.3 | 6.4% |
| Synchrony, Utah | 8 | 8 | $21,400.0 | 9.7% |
| Navy FCU, Virginia | 9 | 9 | $20,104.2 | 6.2% |
| USAA, Nevada | 10 | 10 | $12,895.4 | -8.5% |
| Goldman Sachs Bank*, Utah | 11 | 17 | $8,212.0 | 92.3% |
| PNC Bank, Delaware | 12 | 11 | $8,026.8 | 0.8% |
| Credit One Bank, Nevada | 13 | 12 | $7,641.4 | 14.6% |
| TD Bank, Delaware | 14 | 13 | $6,741.3 | 1.7% |
| First Natl. of Nebraska, Nebraska | 15 | 14 | $6,521.6 | 10.8% |
| Alliance Data, Delaware, Utah | 16 | 15 | $6,441.0 | 17.0% |
| Truist, North Carolina | 17 | 16 | $4,857.4 | -0.0% |
| Merrick Bank, Utah | 18 | 19 | $3,438.7 | 10.8% |
| Fifth Third Bank, Ohio | 19 | 18 | $3,017.6 | -7.3% |
| Citizens Bank, Rhode Island | 20 | 20 | $1,925.8 | 2.4% |
| PenFed Credit Union, Virginia | 21 | 21 | $1,808.9 | 4.3% |
| First Premier Bank, South Dakota | 22 | 23 | $1,759.7 | 9.6% |
| Regions Bank, Alabama | 23 | 22 | $1,622.7 | 0.1% |
| Mercury Financial, Texas | 24 | 25 | $1,566.6 | 28.3% |
| KeyBank, Ohio | 25 | 24 | $1,445.8 | 6.3% |
| BECU, Washington | 26 | 26 | $1,147.9 | 4.1% |
| Upgrade Card/CRB, New Jersey | 27 | 87 | $1,093.1 | 539.5% |
| Ally Bank, Utah | 28 | - | $953.0 | - |
| ICBA Bancard, Washington, D.C. | 29 | 28 | $917.0 | -10.7% |
| M&T Bank, New York | 30 | 31 | $912.8 | 11.9% |
| Commerce Bank, Missouri | 31 | 30 | $896.5 | -1.1% |
| State Employees' CU (N.C.), North Carolina | 32 | 32 | $879.5 | 10.3% |
| BMO Harris, Illinois | 33 | 37 | $806.4 | 18.2% |
| SchoolsFirst FCU, California | 34 | 34 | $803.4 | 9.7% |
| Suncoast CU, Florida | 35 | 33 | $752.9 | 0.1% |
| Huntington Natl. Bank, Ohio | 36 | 35 | $745.0 | 4.1% |
| PSECU, Pennsylvania | 37 | 36 | $697.1 | -0.4% |
| Golden 1 CU, California | 38 | 38 | $657.4 | 1.1% |
| America First FCU, Utah | 39 | 39 | $650.1 | 11.0% |
| Total Volume | Purchase Volume | Cash Volume | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RANK-21 | MIL | CHANGE | RANK-21 | MIL | CHANGE | RANK-21 | MIL | CHANGE |
| 1 | $961,434.8 | 27.6% | 1 | $950,470.0 | 27.8% | 2 | $10,964.8 | 11.2% |
| 2 | $483,521.5 | 20.5% | 2 | $476,418.4 | 20.7% | 3 | $710.31 | 10.0% |
| 3 | $462,005.0 | 28.5% | 3 | $454,959.2 | 28.8% | 4 | $704.58 | 11.8% |
| 4 | $427,887.5 | 22.3% | 4 | $411,713.3 | 22.2% | 1 | $16,174.2 | 26.0% |
| 5 | $169,214.7 | 21.2% | 5 | $164,787.3 | 21.2% | 6 | $4,427.3 | 19.0% |
| 6 | $137,427.5 | 20.0% | 6 | $132,205.6 | 20.4% | 5 | $5,221.9 | 10.6% |
| 7 | $82,122.1 | 21.1% | 7 | $79,541.0 | 19.8% | 7 | $2,581.1 | 80.2% |
| 8 | $65,981.0 | 29.1% | 8 | $65,770.0 | 29.2% | 18 | $210.0 | 5.5% |
| 12 | $36,743.3 | 33.3% | 12 | $34,784.8 | 37.8% | 8 | $1,958.5 | -15.4% |
| 9 | $49,442.1 | 17.3% | 9 | $48,318.8 | 18.9% | 9 | $1,123.3 | -24.6% |
| 17 | $18,133.8 | 91.1% | 17 | $18,133.8 | 91.1% | - | - | - |
| 11 | $46,232.1 | 17.4% | 11 | $45,461.3 | 18.1% | 11 | $770.8 | -13.3% |
| 19 | $14,580.1 | 33.3% | 19 | $14,310.3 | 32.7% | 16 | $269.8 | 68.5% |
| 14 | $24,494.2 | 18.9% | 14 | $24,324.1 | 19.3% | 22 | $170.0 | -20.9% |
| 15 | $22,413.1 | 25.9% | 16 | $21,309.1 | 26.5% | 10 | $110.39 | 14.1% |
| 18 | $15,023.8 | 28.6% | 18 | $14,928.6 | 28.5% | 34 | $95.1 | 40.1% |
| 13 | $27,373.1 | 12.1% | 13 | $26,899.1 | 12.1% | 14 | $438.0 | 13.3% |
| 33 | $4,558.6 | 31.5% | 33 | $4,380.7 | 31.5% | 21 | $177.9 | 31.4% |
| 20 | $14,075.3 | 15.6% | 20 | $13,932.9 | 16.3% | 24 | $142.4 | -28.3% |
| 23 | $8,375.6 | 20.5% | 24 | $8,104.4 | 21.4% | 15 | $271.2 | -1.1% |
| 31 | $4,785.0 | 27.0% | 34 | $4,295.7 | 30.2% | 13 | $489.2 | 4.0% |
Includes consumer, small business, corporate, purchasing and fleet cards. Some prior year figures have been restated. Use percent change to calculate the 2020 results. Cards and/or accounts include virtual cards and/or one-time-use accounts for which a plastic card may not have been issued. Active accounts are those with at least one purchase transaction during the fourth quarter. Issuers with purchase volume in the top 50 but that had outstandings less than the $1 million were not included in this list.