NBU reports 2.5% increase in number of payment cards

The total number of payment cards in circulation since year-start has grown by 2.5%, to 75.3 million, the National Bank of Ukraine reports.

"Non-cash transactions via payment cards remain popular among Ukrainians," Andriy Podderehin, chief of the NBU's Payment Systems and Innovative Development Department, told a press conference.

By the number of transactions this year, non-cash continue to prevail – in March, almost 90% of transactions via payment cards were non-cash. The amount of non-cash transactions in March 2021 amounted to about 61% of all card transactions," it was reported.

Read alsoUkrainian banks' net profit shrinks by 32% in Q1It is noted that, in addition to the growing number of cards, the payment infrastructure continued to expand as well. In January-March this year, the number of points of sale accepting payment cards increased by 2%, up to 334,000.

During this period, the network of POS terminals across Ukraine grew by almost 2%, up to 382,000. Of these, almost 87% allow contactless payments.

It is also reported that, despite the pandemic, the volume of cross-border transfers to Ukraine last year saw almost no decrease. At the same time, transfers through bank accounts (via SWIFT) took the lead in the volume of transactions. Thus, the quarantine contributed to the shift of cross-border transfers from unofficial channels to official ones, the National Bank emphasized.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on February 19, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed at first reading the draft law on payment services, designed to regulate the payment market in Ukraine and bring legislation in line with that of the EU.