Discover Financial Services’ Card Sales Volume (2016-2023)

This statistic highlights Discover Financial Services’ Card Sales Volume, reported on a quarterly basis from Q1 2016 onwards.

The company operates the Discover Network, provides payment cards and allows third parties to issue payment cards. The company currently offers and issues credit cards to consumers. The credit card customers are permitted to revolve their balances and repay their obligations over a period of time and at an interest rate set forth in their card-member agreements, which may be either fixed or variable. The interest that the company earns on revolving credit card balances makes up approximately 81% of total interest income. The company also charges its customers other fees as specified in card-member agreements. These fees may comprise fees for late payments, returned checks, balance transfer transactions, and cash advance dealings. The credit card customers’ transactions in the United States are processed over the Discover Network.

Discover Financial Services’ Card Sales Volume

(All the figures are in billions)

Discover Financial Services’ card sales volume grew by 40.07%, from 33.99 billion in Q1 2020 to 47.61 billion in Q3 2021. In spite of that, the pattern of growth has been marked by diverse fluctuations. Card sales volume displayed an upward trend from Q2 2020 to Q4 2020. It declined from 33.99 billion in Q1 2020 to 30.72 billion in Q2 2020, which was a dip of 9.6%. In comparison to Q2 2020, card sales volume marked a growth of 20.8% and 33.3% in Q3 2020 and Q4 2020 respectively. At the end of this period, it stood at 40.96 billion. This was followed by a dip of 7.86%, as card sales volume dipped to 37.74 billion in Q1 2021.

In the next quarter, there was a growth of 20.45% as card sales volume was recorded at 45.46 billion in Q2 2021. For the latest quarter, card sales volume increased from 37.13 billion in Q3 2020 to 47.61 billion in Q3 2021, marking a growth of 28.23% on a yearly basis. In addition, it grew by 4.73%, as compared to 45.46 billion in Q2 2021, on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

The decline in card sales volume was primarily driven by lower consumer spending at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As governments across the globe adopted various ways to minimize the transmission of COVID-19, the number of cross-border transactions processed on the Discover Global Network decreased. Certain negatively impacted categories such as travel may have an outsized impact on some of Diners Club franchisees. The effects from the COVID-19 pandemic may result in lasting changes in consumer payment behaviors, such as a shift from credit to debit, a decrease in the use of cash, growing online sales, and the rapidly adopting of contactless payment options. As economic uncertainty prevails, these shifts may continue to effect the Payment Services segment’s results of operations. Card sales volume growth in the quarters of 2021, was primarily driven by higher consumer spending across all spending categories, reflecting the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and continued economic expansion.

About Discover Financial Services

Discover Financial Services was established in Delaware in 1960. The company deals in digital banking and payment services, providing payment systems, credit cards, finance, consumer banking, and loans.  The company, through its direct-to-consumer channels had 90.4 billion in loan receivables and 63.5 billion in deposits issued as of December 31, 2020. With nearly 50 million cardholders, Discover Card is the third largest card brand in the United States.

The company also operates the Discover Network, the PULSE network and Diners Club International, inclusively known as the Discover Global Network. The Discover Network provides payment transaction processing and settlement services and processes transactions for Discover-branded credit and debit cards. PULSE operates an electronic funds transfer network, providing financial institutions supplying debit cards on the PULSE network with access to ATMs indigenously and internationally, and merchant acceptance throughout the United States for debit card transactions. Diners Club is a global payments network of licensees, which are usually financial institutions, that provides Diners Club-branded credit and charge cards and provides card acceptance services. It is traded on the NYSE under the ticker “DFS”.

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