Non-cash transactions are growing, as well as number of active cards

In the first quarter of this year, as many as 140 million active payment cards were used for various transactions, a 7.7% jump compared to the same period last year, according to Bank of Russia statistics. Starting from this year, Bank of Russia statistics will include this indicator to elaborate a better evaluation of the evolving domestic payment card market.

In the March quarter 2017, our citizens carried out as many as 5.1 billion transactions worth 12.7 trillion rubles, both domestically and overseas. The bulk of non-cash payments were card transactions (84.5%). Of 100 cashless transactions, 89 were made at points of sale. The average spend in point-of-sale transaction has been declining over the last few years. In the first quarter 2017, this amount was 839 rubles, compared to 917 rubles in the same quarter one year prior and 960 rubles two years ago. These figures suggest that payment cards are increasingly used for regular small payments. This trend is further supported by a growing network of POS terminals.