Originally Posted by
macaron95
there is no room for competition in France, the market is owned by card issuers (Visa and Mastercard)
But so is it elsewhere: most cards in the UK are Visa or Mastercard (with some non-Amex Amex, however).
What makes the UK environment more significantly different, I suspect, is that many French cards are not credit cards but debit cards, where the potential for revenue from card users (as opposed to merchants) is virtually nil (other than a fixed card fee). Also, interest rates are much more controlled in France than in the UK. The rates of interest charged on quite a few credit cards in the UK would, I believe, be illegal in France as above the "taux d'usure".
It is therefore a much less lucrative market than in the UK, which is another factor for less competition.