First half sees almost 260 million payment cards issued in Russia

Both the number of cards being issued and spending on them were on the rise in the first half of 2017, Bank of Russia data show. Russian banks issued almost 260 million payment cards in the first six months of 2017, which is more than 10 million up on the same period last year. As of 1 July of the past year, there were 133.5 million active cards (that is, cards used by holders to conduct transactions within the reporting period); this year the number stands at 144 million active cards.

In the first six months of the year, as many as 10.9 billion transactions were carried out to a total of 27.6 trillion rubles, of which over 8 billion transactions were made to a total of 7.7 trillion rubles worth of products and services.