Bank cards number up by 1.3% in H1 2021
<p> MINSK, Aug 11 - PrimePress. Belarus’ number of bank cards in circulation reached 15.278 million as of July 1, 2021, or 1.3% up year to date, the National Bank said in a report. </p> <p> </p> <p> The number of BelKart cards fell by 27% to 1.706 million units, BelKart/Maestro down 1.1% to 1.88 million, Visa – up 7.5% to 5.993 million, MasterCard – up 0.5% to 5.696 million, UnionPay – up 3.1% to 3,300. </p> <p> </p> <p> As of 1 July 2021, 23 Belarusian banks issued bank cards. </p> <p> </p> <p> Banks cut number of payment terminals, self-service terminals </p> <p> </p> <p> As of 1 July 2021, Belarus had 124,300 merchants with payment terminals (down 0.5% since early this year). The total number of POS terminals stood at 165,400, down 2.1%. 100% of payment terminals support EMV standard, 97.7% accept contactless payments. </p> <p> </p> <p> As of 1 July, VISA, Mastercard and BelKard card acquiring services for merchants and service providers were provided by 11 banks. </p> <p> </p> <p> At the same time, the infrastructure of payment card servicing is gradually shrinking. Since early 2021, the number of POS terminals at cash desks decreased by 2.5% to 4,958 units, while the number of infokiosks - by 6% to 2,656 units, and the number of ATMs remained virtually unchanged at 4,345 units. </p> <p> </p> <p> Cashless settlements in nine out of ten transactions </p> <p> </p> <p> In H1 2021, 1.121 billion transactions worth Br47.86 billion ($19.04 billion at the exchange rate of the National Bank of Belarus) were made with bank cards in Belarus. </p> <p> </p> <p> Cashless transactions accounted for 91.4% of the total card transactions in terms of number and 63.6% in terms of value. </p> <p> </p> <p> The share of cashless transactions with the use of bank cards made 72% in 2014, 76.4% in 2015, 79.8% in 2016, 83.1% in 2017, 86.2% in 2018, 88.8% in 2019, 91.2% in 2020. End </p>
2021-08-12
Primepress
Bank cards number up by 1.3% in H1 2021
MINSK, Aug 11 - PrimePress. Belarus’ number of bank cards in circulation reached 15.278 million as of July 1, 2021, or 1.3% up year to date, the National Bank said in a report.
The number of BelKart cards fell by 27% to 1.706 million units, BelKart/Maestro down 1.1% to 1.88 million, Visa – up 7.5% to 5.993 million, MasterCard – up 0.5% to 5.696 million, UnionPay – up 3.1% to 3,300.
As of 1 July 2021, 23 Belarusian banks issued bank cards.
Banks cut number of payment terminals, self-service terminals
As of 1 July 2021, Belarus had 124,300 merchants with payment terminals (down 0.5% since early this year). The total number of POS terminals stood at 165,400, down 2.1%. 100% of payment terminals support EMV standard, 97.7% accept contactless payments.
As of 1 July, VISA, Mastercard and BelKard card acquiring services for merchants and service providers were provided by 11 banks.
At the same time, the infrastructure of payment card servicing is gradually shrinking. Since early 2021, the number of POS terminals at cash desks decreased by 2.5% to 4,958 units, while the number of infokiosks - by 6% to 2,656 units, and the number of ATMs remained virtually unchanged at 4,345 units.
Cashless settlements in nine out of ten transactions
In H1 2021, 1.121 billion transactions worth Br47.86 billion ($19.04 billion at the exchange rate of the National Bank of Belarus) were made with bank cards in Belarus.
Cashless transactions accounted for 91.4% of the total card transactions in terms of number and 63.6% in terms of value.
The share of cashless transactions with the use of bank cards made 72% in 2014, 76.4% in 2015, 79.8% in 2016, 83.1% in 2017, 86.2% in 2018, 88.8% in 2019, 91.2% in 2020. End