For 2016, the total number of transactions, using payment cards, issued by Ukrainian banks, increased by almost 28% and made up 2,513 mln, while the volumes of transactions increased by 30.6% and made up by UAH 1.610 bln, Finance.ua reports.

The regulator notes that the popularity of retail non-cash settlements among Ukrainians continued to grow actively.

The share of non-cash payments, using payment cards, for 2016 increased by 4.3% in terms of volume of transactions and made UAH 571.3 billion (35.5% from the total amount of card transactions).

In terms of the number of deals, the share of non-cash settlements increased by 5.1% and made up 1,775 mln transactions (70.6% from the total number of card transactions).

As of January 1, 2017 versus the same period of the previous year, there increased the total number of:

-          active payment cards – by 1.55 mln (5%) and made up 32.4 mln;

-          contactless payment cards – by 0.54 mln (37.4%) and made up 1.99 mln;

-          payment cards with the function of e-money – six times and made up 54 ths.

In 2016, the number of payment cards increased as well as the payment infrastructure expanded. Thus, the National Bank points to the growth of the number of trade and service companies, which provide their clients with the opportunity to conduct non-cash settlement. For 2016, their number increased by more than 11% (by 14,674 units) and made up 145,938 units.  

During 2016, the infrastructure of using payment instruments also increased and, as of January 1, totaled almost 33.8 ths ATMs and 219.2 ths terminals (as of January 1, 2016 – 33.3 ths ATMs and 194.5 ths terminals).

As of January 1, PrivatBank, Oshchadbank, Raiffaisen Bank Aval were leaders among the banks in terms of the number of issued payment cards and the degree of branching of infrastructure.

In terms of the number of payment cards and installed devices for their servicing within the regional breakdown, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions demonstrate the highest indicators.