"Tug-of-War" for 2nd Place Among Card Companies... "Fierce Battle for Market Share"

Samsung vs KB Kookmin, Corporate Card Performance Divides Market Share
Hyundai Card Also Steadily Increasing Share

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The battle for second place between Samsung Card and KB Kookmin Card is reigniting. In the first quarter of this year, KB Kookmin Card rose to second place through aggressive marketing, but Samsung Card reclaimed the position in the second quarter, resulting in a back-and-forth competition. While narrowing the gap with the first-place Shinhan Card through market share expansion, the competition to secure the second place is also intensifying.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's Financial Statistics Information System on the 29th, among the seven specialized card companies (Shinhan, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Lotte, Woori, and Hana Card), Samsung Card ranked second in market share based on personal and corporate credit sales (excluding corporate purchases) in the second quarter of this year, with 18.16%. This is an increase of about 0.49 percentage points compared to the previous quarter (17.67%). In the first quarter, KB Kookmin Card had surpassed Samsung Card by a margin of 0.04 percentage points, marking the first time in nine years since its spin-off in 2011 that it held second place. However, Samsung Card overtook KB Kookmin Card (17.92%) by 0.24 percentage points after three months and reclaimed the second position.

The difference between second and third place was determined by corporate performance. In the first quarter, excluding corporate card performance, Samsung Card held second place with a personal credit sales share of 18.24%. However, KB Kookmin Card expanded its corporate business and accelerated auto installment financing, achieving results in corporate performance and surpassing Samsung Card to take second place.

In response, Samsung Card also strengthened its corporate business. In the second quarter of this year, corporate performance reached 4.193 trillion KRW, an increase of 499 billion KRW (13.5%) from the previous quarter (3.694 trillion KRW). KB Kookmin Card also recorded corporate performance of 3.765 trillion KRW, up 9.7% from the previous quarter, but Samsung Card's growth was larger. A Samsung Card official stated, "We believe that the sales strategy focused on high-quality corporate members under a sound management policy was effective."

The gap with the first-place company is 3.17 percentage points... The gap is narrowing

Samsung, KB Kookmin, and Hyundai Card have been competing for the second place among card companies for several years. This year, all three have expanded their market shares compared to the previous quarter, narrowing the gap with the first-place Shinhan Card. In the second quarter of this year, the difference with the first place narrowed to 3.17 percentage points. In the previous quarter, the gap between first and second place was 4.3 percentage points.

KB Kookmin Card, which ranked third, also increased its market share by 0.21 percentage points from the previous quarter (17.71%) to 17.92%. Following that, Hyundai Card took fourth place with a 0.32 percentage point increase from the previous quarter, reaching 16.60%. Compared to the same period last year (15.60%), this is an increase of up to 1%. Hyundai Card has been steadily increasing its market share by expanding its member base through strengthening private label credit cards (PLCC).

Meanwhile, Shinhan Card maintained first place with a market share of 21.33%. However, its market share fell by 0.64 percentage points compared to the previous quarter (21.97%). The gap in market share between small and medium-sized card companies such as Lotte, Woori, and Hana Card and large card companies is widening. Woori Card's market share in the second quarter rose by 0.17 percentage points from the previous quarter (8.68%) to 8.85%, but Lotte Card's share fell by 0.24 percentage points to 9.37% from 9.61% in the previous quarter. Hana Card also recorded a decrease of 0.31 percentage points from the previous quarter (8.08%) to 7.77%.