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Shopping Centers Today -> May 2006
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PERU GOES PLASTIC
Credit cards are burning a hole in the pockets of many Peruvians.
Although there were only 210,000 credit cards a decade ago, the Peruvian market now boasts 3 million of them. Peru’s population is estimated at 28 million.
In Lima 15.5 percent of the population has a credit card. Once children are excluded, that means that the penetration is less than half of the potential market, says Max Chion, general manager of the Lima-based Banco del Trabajo, Peru’s fourth-largest issuer of credit cards.
Of all credit card holders in Lima, Peru’s capital city, 43 percent belong to the so-called ‘A’ or ‘B’ socioeconomic categories, the highest earners. (A family that belongs to the B sector, for instance, earns more than $1,500 a month.) Thirty-nine percent belong to the middle class, and 18 percent make up the lowest-income earners.
Fifty percent of credit card holders in Peru are men. The biggest users are in the 26-to-37 age group, which accounts for 40 percent of credit card holders. Twenty-three percent belong to the 38-to-50 age group, and 21 percent are 50 or older. The remaining percentage comprises the 17-to-25 group.
Chion projects that in 10 years, 80 percent of Peru’s urban households will have at least one credit card. The future is looking plastic indeed.
— MBP
 | Current Issue March 2010 |