A new study from Juniper Research predicts a 39% rise in global card technology spending by card issuers, from $9.8bn in 2024 to $13bn in 2029.

According to the research, payment card shipments will stagnate over the next five years, falling by 2% globally between 2024 and 2029. As levels of financial inclusion significantly rise, fewer new accounts are being opened; reducing organic growth.

However, the advent of new card types will help to offset this, with growth expected to be driven by banks and other card issuers attracting new customers with differentiated card types, such as wood or metal cards. The latter are expected to see an increase in annual shipments of 178% over the next five years, reaching almost 200 million annually by 2029.

Research author Nick Maynard said: "Banks need to create custom card programmes that can target specific user bases, in order to sustain their growth. For card manufacturers, this means both developing distinctive card offerings, and offering services such as modern card issuing platforms to provide a comprehensively effective user experience. If banks fail to introduce new offerings, they will rapidly lose out to more distinctive competitors.”

The new research offers the most comprehensive assessment of the payment card technology space to date, including insightful market analysis and in-depth forecasts for 60 countries. The dataset contains 15,200 market statistics and the report includes a ‘Competitor Leaderboard’, accompanied by an examination of current and future market opportunities.