CPI Card Group Inc. PMTS

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Lender Specialized
Overall moat score
48/100
Developing

About CPI Card Group Inc.

CPI Card Group Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, production, data personalization, packaging, and fulfillment of payment cards in the United States. It operates through Debit and Credit, and Prepaid Debit segments. The Debit and Credit segment produces secure debit and credit cards, such as contact, contactless, eco-focused, and magnetic stripe cards; and provides card services, including … Full PMTS analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Disciplined Risk Management Risk management appears disciplined (asset quality score 0.84).

Key risks

  • Returns Squeezed by Funding Costs Returns are weak for a debt-funded lender (profitability score 0.34).
  • Operational Inefficiency Operational efficiency lags peers (score 0.34).

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Funding & Return Stability

Developing
33

Where PMTS ranks in Credit Services

CPI Card Group Inc. ranks #28 of 48 scored companies in Credit Services by moat score — the top 58%. The widest moat in the group is Qifu Technology, Inc (QFIN) at 77/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near PMTS in Credit Services
# Company Moat score Rating
24 Navient Corporation NAVI 54/100 Moderate
25 Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. BFH 51/100 Moderate
26 Regional Management Corp. RM 50/100 Developing
27 Green Dot Corporation GDOT 49/100 Developing
28 CPI Card Group Inc. PMTS 48/100 Developing
29 Consumer Portfolio Services, In CPSS 45/100 Developing
30 Capital One Financial Corporati COF 41/100 Developing
31 Ally Financial Inc. ALLY 40/100 Developing
32 Nelnet, Inc. NNI 40/100 Developing

See every Banks & Lenders company ranked by moat score →

How PMTS scores on the Lender Specialized defenses

Funding & Return Stability

Score 33 · 22% of the moat score

A lender without deposits buys all of its funding, so its first test is whether the business still earns a decent return when that funding gets dearer.

Lending Advantage

Score 56 · 18% of the moat score

Outside banking, a lending advantage usually comes from origination: a channel or a data edge that finds good borrowers more cheaply than rivals, or a niche such as subprime auto, student loans or agency mortgages where experience in underwriting and servicing is hard to copy.

Capital Strength

Not measurable · 20% of the moat score

Without deposit insurance or a central-bank backstop, equity is what keeps a lender in business when its lenders get nervous.

Cost Discipline

Score 42 · 16% of the moat score

Origination, servicing and collections are largely fixed-cost operations, so scale and automation decide how much of the spread survives to the bottom line.

Revenue Diversification

Score 38 · 14% of the moat score

A lender that earns only on the spread of one product is exposed to that product's cycle and to the market that funds it.

Risk Management

Score 86 · 10% of the moat score

Credit losses at a non-bank lender arrive late and all at once, and with borrowed funding they can turn into a liquidity problem in weeks.

How each Lender Specialized defense is measured, in full →

Understanding PMTS's moat

What is CPI Card Group Inc.'s moat score?

CPI Card Group Inc. (PMTS) scores 48 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #28 of 48 scored companies in Credit Services, the top 58%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 47 companies in Credit Services. Its strongest defense is Risk Management (86/100) and its weakest is Funding & Return Stability (33/100).

How does CPI Card Group Inc. compare with other Credit Services companies?

CPI Card Group Inc. ranks #28 of 48 scored companies in Credit Services by moat score. The widest moat in Credit Services is Qifu Technology, Inc (QFIN) at 77/100. The companies ranked closest are Green Dot Corporation (GDOT) at 49 just above it and Consumer Portfolio Services, In (CPSS) at 45 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Lender Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 47 companies in Credit Services. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is CPI Card Group Inc. scored with the Lender Specialized template?

Card and instalment lenders, mortgage originators and mortgage REITs make money the way a bank does, by earning more on what they lend than they pay for the money they lend, but they do not take deposits. They borrow in the debt markets instead: securitisations, warehouse lines, repo and bonds, money that has to be refinanced and repriced as rates move. The Lender template scores what decides whether such a business lasts: how well its returns hold up as funding costs change, what it lends against, how much equity stands behind the book, and whether it has been pricing credit honestly.

Which competitive defenses are measured for CPI Card Group Inc.?

The Lender Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and PMTS scores: Funding & Return Stability (33), Lending Advantage (56), Capital Strength (not measurable), Cost Discipline (42), Revenue Diversification (38), Risk Management (86). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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