BC Card's own card fee revenue ratio has failed to break out of the 1% range for the fourth year. As revenue from its traditional core business of providing a payment network gradually declined, it expanded its own card business, but it has yet to deliver clear results.
According to the semiannual report on the 25th, BC Card's own card fee revenue in the first half of this year was 26.7 billion won, up 49.1% from the same period a year earlier (17.9 billion won). However, its share of total revenue was only 1.5%.
During the same period, acquiring operations (payment network provision) revenue was 1.382 trillion won, down 9.8% from the same period a year earlier (1.533 trillion won). Payment network provision, BC Card's core business, refers to handling everything from developing and operating a merchant network to purchasing sales slips and settling and processing payments between merchants and member companies.
BC Card's own card fee revenue ratio has remained in the 1% range for four years. On an annual basis, after it began ramping up its own card business in 2021, the fee revenue ratio was 0.3%, and last year it rose only 0.7 percentage points to 1%. Over the same period, reliance on acquiring operations revenue fell 8.4 percentage points from 88.1% to 79.7%, but that was because "other operating revenue," such as rent, which is not card-related sales, increased by about 8 percentage points. BC Card explained that the ratio of other operating revenue expanded due to higher rental revenue from the Euljiro Twin Tower.
As client defections have continued recently, the decline in performance of BC Card's main business of providing a payment network has also begun in earnest. As the number of firms handling similar operations has grown lately, financial companies have less reason to remain BC Card clients while paying fees.
BC Card attempted to diversify its business by launching its own cards in 2021, but competition is tough in an already saturated card market. Among all BC Card members, the share of "active users" who use their cards regularly each month is only 18.1%, far lower than competitors in the 70% range.
With revenue declining recently, business diversification has become more urgent. BC Card's net income in the second quarter of this year was 38 billion won, down 7% from a year earlier. A BC Card official said, "The share is still small, but some products are gaining attention and sales are steadily increasing."