The average number of card schemes operational in jurisdictions of Central Banking’s Payments Benchmarks 2021 respondents is three, with Mastercard and Visa dominating the market. 

Of the 33 central banks that responded to the benchmark, four noted there were zero card schemes operational while one central bank recorded a total of 10; this central bank was from a high income European country. 

Card schemes are generally defined as payments networks linked to certain payments cards. These