STRATEGY

Our exclusive database details banks, cards and payments sector companies and their subsidiaries

The world’s leading banks, payment providers, cards programmes and processors companies operate an average of 54.9 subsidiaries each. Patrick Scott and Georges Corbineau reveal the global hotspots for these operations

Banks, payment providers, cards programmes and processors multinationals are far less likely to establish subsidiaries in North America than the average multinational company according to analysis of GlobalData’s exclusively compiled subsidiary database.

Companies establish subsidiaries for a variety of reasons: they can allow them to expand into profitable new markets, to increase revenue, and to diversify their holdings to better manage risk. As a vital component to a company’s expansion plans, the establishment of a subsidiary can offer insight into investment trends, with our database allowing you to see these investment patterns on a wider, sector level.

GlobalData’s multinational company database – which can be viewed in full on our sister site Investment Monitor- contains information for 2,188 of the world’s top multinational companies (MNCs) by revenue. Of these MNCs, 217 are in the banks, payment providers, cards programmes and processors industry, representing 9.9% of the companies in our database.

These banks, payment providers, cards programmes and processors companies are less likely than average to establish subsidiaries in North America (19.5% vs 27.8%) and are more likely to establish them in Western Europe (41.9% vs 36.8%).

Overall, the 217 banks, payment providers, cards programmes and processors MNCs in our database operate 11,913 subsidiaries. This comes to an average of 54.9 subsidiaries per company, compared to an average of 99 for the entire database of 2,188 companies. It should be noted, however, that the number of subsidiaries is by no means evenly distributed within the sector. The most common number of subsidiaries for an MNC in the sector (the mode) is six, while the median comes in at 19, indicating that the simple average is skewed heavily by the bigger parent companies.

Germany-based Commerzbank AG has the largest number of subsidiaries among the banks, payment providers, cards programmes and processors sector MNCs within our database with 626. This means it ranks in 44th place across our entire database when measured by the total number of subsidiaries.

Where has Commerzbank AG established subsidiaries?

Commerzbank AG’s subsidiaries are distributed across the world with 90.1% of the total located in Western Europe, the highest for any region. Some 506 of Commerzbank AG's subsidiaries are located in its home country of Germany, while the UK was the second most popular destination with 34.

After Commerzbank AG, Société Gé40nérale SA had the second largest number of subsidiaries within the banks, payment providers, cards programmes and processors industry MNCs in the database with 606, while BNP Paribas SA was third with 595 and Raiffeisen Bank International AG was fourth with 497.

Where has Société Générale SA established subsidiaries?

Overall, 6,080 of the subsidiaries owned by the banks, payment providers, cards programmes and processors MNCs in the database were located in the same country as the parent company was headquartered. This meant that MNCs in the sector were more likely than average to have a preference for domestic subsidiaries at 51%, with the figure for the entire database standing at 45.7%.

Methodology

GlobalData has compiled a list of top MNCs based on revenue. Any top companies that did not have a subsidiary were removed from the list. The latest company annual reports (2019 and 2020, where available) and websites were analysed for a total of 2,188 companies. For a subsidiary to be included, the parent company had to have a majority ownership/control in the subsidiary. Affiliates, associates, joint operations and joint ventures were included as long as the ownership criteria was met. Subsidiary information was captured at a country level. Country names were standardised. In total, 216,898 subsidiaries were captured.