Introduction
About the Yearbook
This edition of the Eurasian Payment Cards Yearbook 2024-25 is the sixteenth in this series since the publishers decided to split Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) away from the European Payment Cards Yearbook, which formerly included Russia and Ukraine.
The 10 Eurasian countries reviewed in this Yearbook are as follows:
EA10: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Uzbekistan.
Those countries which form part of the Eurasian region, but are not profiled due to lack of data, are Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The ‘Eurasian Payment Cards Yearbook’ was published for the first time in September 2009, under the name of ‘Russia, Georgia and CIS Payments Cards Yearbook’. Georgia withdrew from the CIS in August 2009; thus the ‘Russia, CIS’ Yearbook’s title was amended to ‘Russia, Georgia and CIS’ Yearbook. It is now entitled the ‘Eurasian Payments Cards Yearbook.’
In many Eurasian countries, the central bank, or domestic payments organisation compiles payment cards data of good quality. Official 2023 payment cards data is available in full or in part from all 10 of the country profiles in the 2024-25 edition of the Eurasian Payment Cards Yearbook.
There are 33 countries in the European Payment Cards Yearbook. These are the 31 countries forming the European Economic Area (EEA) – the EU27 with Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the UK – plus Serbia and Turkey.
The decision to split coverage of the Eurasian yearbook from the European yearbook was based on current and future potential differences between the regions, on the increasing number of statistical anomalies thrown up, and on the opportunity created to focus more closely on the hitherto-uncovered countries of central Asia.
The countries of Europe are generally mature payments markets, with cards issued and acceptance networks at or near saturation point in many cases. While this is less true of more recent EU-accession countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, investment by Western banking groups and ongoing economic integration at EU level make it likely that the maturity of their payments will converge over time towards those of the more developed markets.
Note on the Eurasian Countries
The countries within Eurasia, on the other hand, can be characterised as having significant potential for market growth, as the per capita figures show. In the field of cards issued, Eurasia is making good progress. In 2023, cards per capita in Eurasia averaged 2.42 cards per capita equivalent to cards per capita for the EU Member States, while the EU27 reported 1.68 cards per capita.
| 1 - Trends in Cards per Capita | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | GR 22/23 | CAGR 5Y | |
| Cards issued - Eurasia (m) | 417.49 | 459.48 | 509.63 | 585.49 | 681.04 | 16.3% | 12.0% |
| Annual growth rate/year - Eurasia | 8.2% | 10.1% | 10.9% | 14.9% | 16.3% | - | - |
| Cards per capita - Eurasia | 1.50 | 1.65 | 1.83 | 2.09 | 2.42 | 15.6% | 11.6% |
| Cards issued - EU28, 2020+: EU27 (m) | 863.00 | 739.24 | 768.73 | 829.00 | 815.51 | -1.6% | -0.3% |
| Annual growth rate/year - EU28 | 4.0% | -14.3% | 4.0% | 7.8% | -1.6% | - | - |
| Cards per capita - EU27 | 1.57 | 1.65 | 1.72 | 1.85 | 1.81 | -2.1% | 3.9% |
| Note: Eurasian figures for the EA10 countries exclude Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. | |||||||
| Note: EU figures are for EU28 apart from 2020 which is for EU27 (without UK). | |||||||
| Source: Yearbooks research. | |||||||
Acceptance networks in Eurasia have shown much lower levels of development, no longer including Russia, but in 2023, ATMs per million inhabitants were 706.3 in Eurasia compared with 628.4 for the EU Member States. There is an interesting infrastructure convergence, in that ATMs per capita are increasing in Eurasia, even as they decrease in Europe owing to the trend towards digital payment. In 2022, Eurasia had 679.4 ATMs per million inhabitants while the EU27+UK reported 641.3 ATMs per million inhabitants.
In the case of POS terminals per million inhabitants, the Eurasian figure was 23,259.9 compared with 47,601.1 in the EU Member States. In 2022, Eurasia had 21,172.0 POS terminals per million inhabitants while the EU27+UK reported 42,741.7 POS terminals per million inhabitants).
Appendices
The Eurasian Payment Cards Yearbook is now in its sixteenth edition. Over the past decade, a substantial amount of information has become historical in nature, though it remains useful in understanding the evolution of a specific market. To preserve this information and improve the narrative of the main profile, background information has been moved where appropriate to the back of the profile, under the heading ‘Appendix.’
In some countries, selected important information has not been updated because of lack of recent data. The respective tables have also been retained in this edition of the Yearbook to show historic trends, and in the hope that coverage can be resumed in future editions.
Country Profiles – Structure
The core of the Eurasian Payment Cards Yearbook is the series of profiles of the card markets of Eurasia country by country. These include key statistical information and data on the following subjects, though not all profiles contain all of them:
Market Overview
- Key statistics – and selected Key Performance Indicators
Introduction
- Payments in specific country
Banking Sector
- Bank Structure, – domestic banks, size and ownership
- International Expansion
- Recent M&A activity
- Digital Banking
Payment Services
- Card brands and Card Types
- Contactless card and form factors
- NFC HCE versus Secure Elements: SIM SE NFC
- Interchange Fee Arrangements
- E-Money
- Digital Account-to-Account Payment Services
- Advanced Payment Services – digital wallets, prepaid products
- Digital Payment Services
- Overview of Cashless Payments
- Cards compared to other cashless payment services
- Currency, Exchange Rates
Market Infrastructure
- Country specific organisations and domestic schemes
- Card issuer Overview, major card issuers
- Card Processors and PSPs, major processors and PSPs
- Acquiring and Acceptance, major acquirers
- ATM Network Infrastructure, Contactless ATMs
- POS Terminal Network Infrastructure, MPOS Terminals
- Remote Payments on the Internet – Cards & More
- online-payments mix by country – market indications
- B2C e-commerce revenue statistics
- Mobile Payments – Overview
- Mobile Payment Initiatives
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CDBC) – The Digital Cash Challenge
- Background on CBDC Evolution
- Global Status of CDBCs
- Pros and Cons of CBDCs
- National CBDC Initiatives
Unregulated Cryptocurrency Products – Background
- Cryptocurrencies
- Stablecoins
Market size and dynamics
- Cards in circulation
- Card Fraud
- Card use – Card payments, withdrawals
- Card Use per Capita
- Card use drill down by card types
- Debit cards, delayed debit cards, credit cards, prepaid cards
- Leading card issuers – selected details
Appendix
- Card Business Background
- Relevant historic information
- EMV Migration Background
In order to address new technologies and the payment industry market trends year-on-year, the Eurasian Payment Card Yearbook 2024-2025 was updated and enhanced by adding information and data on:
Card Business Update
- Updated annual statistics, year-on-year growth rates, CAGR
- Updated e-/m-commerce information and B2C e-commerce revenues
- Updates on contactless cards, contactless POS terminals, MPOS terminals
- Updates on card processing and leading processors and PSPs
- Updates on acquirer information and accepted card brands by acquirer
- Updates on issuer information and card brands issued by bank
- Update on notable mobile payment initiatives
New Payment Business Trends
- Updates on digital payments and digital wallets
- Outlook on tokenisation and digitalisation of payments
- Card fraud trends and selected card fraud loss statistics
- Views on notable payments industry market trends
- Notable new payment service pilots:
- QR-codes, NFC HCE, BLE, contactless ATMs, biometrics.
Eurasian Overview Section
In addition to the country profiles, the Eurasian Payment Cards Yearbook includes a regional overview with key statistics. Contents of the regional section can be summarised as follows:
- Regional overview, covering bank sector overview, banking trends, bank ownership, investment by western banks, cross-border investment by Eurasian banks, other private investment, multilateral banks and agencies, and Eurasian growth prospects.
- Payment cards overview, including cards issued, number of payments per country, expenditure on cards by country and a variety of per capita figures.
- Acquiring and acceptance, a section reviewing POS and ATM statistics.
Glossary of Geopolitical Terms
CEE, SEE and CIS: The common factor between the countries of central and eastern Europe (CEE), those of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and those of SEE (south-eastern Europe) is that all formed part of the old USSR or of Comecon, the bloc of European countries which fell under Soviet domination after World War II. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, much has changed.
The term CEE now covers the countries which joined the EU in 2004 plus Bulgaria and Romania, while SEE refers to the former Yugoslavia, excluding Slovenia and Croatia, which both have joined the EU, but comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.
EA10: Georgia and nine CIS countries are covered in the Eurasian Payment Cards Yearbook: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Uzbekistan.
Also forming part of the CIS, but not profiled due to lack of data, are Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Georgia withdrew from the CIS in August 2009.
The other countries of Europe are sub-divided as follows:
Euro zone: The euro area came into being when responsibility for monetary policy was transferred from the national central banks of 11 EU member states to the ECB in January 1999. Greece joined the euro area in 2001, Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014, Lithuania in 2015, and Croatia in 2023 so that when this Yearbook went to press in December 2024, there were 20 members, plus the Vatican City, San Merino, Andorra and Monaco as minor independent entities. Croatia adopted the euro as its currency on 1 January 2023, becoming the 20th member state of the euro zone.
EU15: The 15 members of the EU before its enlargement in 2004 – the euro zone 12 plus Denmark, Sweden, and the UK.
EU25: The EU15 plus the ten countries which acceded to the EU in May 2004 – Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia; also known as ‘A10’ (short for Accession 10).
EU27: In January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania became EU Member States.
EU27: As of 2021, with the UK’s exit from the EU completed, the Yearbooks use the EU27 abbreviation to note the remaining EU members.
EU27 + UK: In 2020, the UK left the EU. During the transition process in 2020, the Yearbooks used the abbreviation EU27 + UK instead of EU28 in the comparable tables of the Eurasian Yearbook. The reason was to keep important key payments industry indicators of 2019 comparable to previous years.
EU28: In July 2013, Croatia became the 28th EU Member State.
EEA: European Economic Area – the EU28 countries plus Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein and Switzerland. All the 32 countries comply with the EC directives, EC regulations and EU initiatives, including SEPA.
E33: The 33 countries covered in the European Payment Cards Yearbook are composed of the EU28 countries plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Serbia and Turkey.
Individual Eurasian Country Profiles
1 – Armenia 6 – Kyrgyz Republic
2 – Azerbaijan 7 – Moldova
3 – Belarus 8 – Russia
4 – Georgia 9 – Ukraine
5 – Kazakhstan 10 – Uzbekistan
Acknowledgments
The report draws on statistics and information from the national central banks (NCBs), the Bank of International Settlement (BIS), domestic payment organisations and commercial banks.
The Yearbook editors thank all those individuals and organisations who have kindly supplied information and statistics.
Conventions
| , (comma) | thousands (e.g. 1,000) |
| . (dot) | decimal point (e.g. 100.5) |
| Ø | abbreviation symbol for “on average”, e.g. Ø TX per card |
| ATM Withdrawals | Cash withdrawals in the country made with domestic cards and with foreign cards – acquirer view |
| Billion, bn | 1,000 million, abbreviated as bn (e.g. €bn) |
| Card Payments | Payments made with domestic cards in the country and with domestic cards abroad – issuer view |
| Delayed debit | Also called deferred debit or charge card; i.e. a card linked to account where bill is paid monthly, but the card has no credit function activated |
| estimated | estimated figures in tables and in the text are marked in italic format |
| Million, m | Million, abbreviated as m (e.g. 3m cards) |
| na, nav, n/a | Not Available; no available values |
| POS Payments | Payments made in the country with domestic cards and with foreign cards– acquirer view |
| POS Terminals | POS terminals in terms of EFTPOS terminals. Cash registers are named as ECR devices in the Yearbook. |
| Transactions | Invariably the term used to cover payments and ATM withdrawals combined, also abbreviated as TX or TXs |
| Trillion | 1,000 billion |
| Value versus Volume |
Early editions of the Yearbook followed the VISA/Mastercard convention of describing monetary values as “volume,” in the sense of turnover or revenue. As little data now comes from the international schemes, the term “value” is used in the more recent editions, in line with the ECB data and other sources. |
Abbreviations
The Yearbook comprises a set of abbreviations used in the country profiles and in the European section where appropriate. Common in the payment industries, this list of abbreviations is provided as a kind of Yearbook glossary:
| ACH | Automated Clearing House, no longer used; replaced by: Clearing & Settlement Mechanism (CSM) |
| ACQ | Acquirer, Acquiring |
| AISP | Account Information Service Provider |
| AML | Anti-Money Laundering |
| API, Open API | Application Programming Interface (API) – a programming language and message format used by software applications to communicate with each other; also: Open API, Public API, Partner API, Private API |
| ASPSP | Account Servicing Payment Service Provider |
| ATM | Automatic Teller Machine, e.g. for cash withdrawals |
| ATV | Average Transaction Value |
| BIC | Business Identifier Code (8 to 11 digits) |
| BLE | Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth Smart) |
| BNPL | Buy Now Pay Later: a flexible instalment service for digital payments |
| CEE | Central East Europe |
| CMP | Contactless Mobile Payments |
| CNP | Card Not Present, on the Internet |
| COD | Cash-/Card-on-Delivery Payments |
| COF | Card on File |
| CPS | Card Payment Schemes |
| CSC | Card Security Code, e.g. CVC2, CVV2, CID, CID2 |
| CSM | Clearing Settlement Mechanism |
| CTP | Click-To-Pay: digital wallet standard of Mastercard, VISA, American Express, Discover, JCB and China Union Pay |
| DCC | Dynamic Currency Conversion |
| DMIF | Domestic Interchange Fee |
| ECR | Electronic Cash Register; i.e. cash handling device |
| EEA | European Economic Area (28 EU + 4 EWR countries) |
| EMV | Global standard for inter-operation of chip cards with chip card capable ATM terminals and POS terminals |
| EOD | End-of-Day; e.g. EOD data collection |
| GDP | Gross Domestic Product |
| GNP | Gross National Domestic Product |
| HCE, HCE NFC | Host Card Emulation; technology to store card credentials in the cloud instead of storing them on the mobile phone |
| HSM | High Security Module; used for encryption |
| IBAN | International Bank Account Number |
| IFSF | International Forecourt Standards Forum |
| IPG | Internet Payment Gateway |
| ISS | Issuer, Issuing |
| KYC | Know Your Customer is the process of a business identifying and verifying the identity of its clients. |
| LVP | Low Value Payment, acronym for payments of low purchase value (e.g. <25 EUR) |
| MasterPass | Digital Wallet of the card scheme Mastercard, replaced by Click-To-Pay |
| MCC | Merchant Category Code |
| MCSC | Mastercard SecureCode, replaced by 3D-Secure Code |
| MFI | Monetary Financial Institution |
| MIT | Merchant Initiated Transaction |
| MMS | Multimedia Messaging Service, i.e. offered by mobile operators on mobile phones |
| MMT | Mobile Money Transfer |
| MNO | Mobile Network Operator |
| MOTO | Mail-Order/Telephone-Order |
| MPI | Merchant Plug-In; connecting online shops with an Internet Payment Gateway |
| MPOS | MPOS Terminal, mini-POS terminal for mobile merchants |
| MSC | Merchant Service Charge |
| MVNO | Mobile Virtual Network Operator |
| NCB | National Central Bank of a country |
| NFC | Near Field Communication; i.e. contactless technology |
| NSP | ATM/POS Network Service Processor |
| OBP | Open Banking Payments, e.g. OBP processor |
| OTA | Over-The-Air; i.e. using the mobile network channel |
| OTI | Over-The-Internet; i.e. using the internet channel |
| PCI | Payment Card Industry; standards: e.g. PCI PTS, PCI DSS |
| PIN | Personal Identification Number |
| PISP | Payment Information Service Provider |
| PLC | Private Label Card, card issued by a retailer |
| POI | Point of Interaction, acronym for multi-channel POS types |
| POS | Point of Sale |
| PSD, PSD2 | Payment Services Directive of the European Union |
| PSP | Payment Service Processor (i.e. specialised internet payment processor) also Payment Service Provider |
| RBA | Risk-based Authentication |
| RTS | Regulatory Technical Standards |
| SCA | Strong Customer Authentication |
| SE | Secure Element, i.e. secure storage of card credentials |
| SEPA | Single Euro Payments Area; i.e. 19 countries (2019) |
| SIM SE NFC | NFC ecosystem with the card credentials stored in a secure element of the SIM card of a NFC capable mobile phone |
| SME | Small & Medium Enterprises |
| SMS | Short Messaging Service, i.e. text messaging service offered by mobile operators on mobile phones |
| SRC | Secure Remote Commerce Standard of EMVCo |
| STP | Straight Through Processing, i.e. automatic transaction |
| TAN | Transaction Authentication Number, used to secure online banking transactions, also iTAN, mTAN |
| TPP | Trusted Payment Provider |
| TMS | Terminal Management System |
| TSM | Trusted Service Manager |
| TX, TXs | abbreviation for transaction or transactions |
| VAT | Value Added Tax |
| VbV | Verified-by-VISA, replaced by 3D-Secure Code |
| VPSP | Virtual Payment Service Provider |
| VRP | Variable Recurring Payments |
| VISA Checkout | Digital Wallet of card scheme VISA, replaced by Click-To-Pay |
| XS2A | Access to Account for authorised TPPs with explicit customer consent |
Notable Organisations active in Eurasia
The Yearbook notes a list of selected payment industry associations which are active in Europe and, thus, are seen as notable from a European market point of view:
| AmEx | American Express, www.americanexpress.com |
| BIS | Bank for International Settlement, www.bis.org |
| CIS | Commonwealth of Independent States, www.cisstat.com |
| CISPI | Commonwealth of Independent States Payments and Securities Settlement Initiative, |
| Diners | Diners Club International, www.dinersclub.com |
| Discover | Discover, www.discover.com |
| EBF | European Banking Federation, www.efb-fbe.eu |
| EBRD | European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, www.ebrd.com |
| EAEU, EEU | Eurasian Economic Union, |
| EMVCo | The EMVCo association manages the EMV specifications, www.emvco.com |
| IMF | International Monetary Fund, www.imf.org |
| JCB | JCB International (Europe) Ltd., www.jcbcorporate.com |
| Mastercard | Card scheme Mastercard, www.mastercard.com |
| UnionPay | Chinese card scheme, also: China Union Pay (CUP), www.unionpay.com |
| VISA | Card scheme VISA, www.visa.com |
Charts, Diagrams and Tables
| 1. Regional Overview | ||
| 1.1 | Table | Biggest non-Russian Banks in Eurasia |
| 1.2 | Map | Largest Banks by Country |
| 1.3 | Table | Eurasian Growth Forecasts |
| 1.4 | Table | Eurasian Inflation Forecasts |
| 1.5 | Table | Remittance Inflows in Eurasia |
| 1.6 | Table | National Interbank Card Schemes in Eurasia |
| 2. Cards Overview | ||
| 2.1 | Table | Cards by Region and Per Capita |
| 2.2 | Table | Cards and Payments |
| 2.3 | Table | BIS Summary of Russian Card Payments |
| 2.4 | Table | Cards Issued |
| 2.5 | Table | Card Payments |
| 2.6 | Table | ATM Withdrawals |
| 2.7 | Table | Total Card Transactions |
| 2.8 | Table | Value of Card Expenditure |
| 2.9 | Table | Value of ATM Withdrawals |
| 2.10 | Table | Card Payments per Capita |
| 2.11 | Table | ATM Withdrawals per Capita |
| 2.12 | Table | Average Card Payment in $ |
| 2.13 | Table | Average ATM Withdrawals in $ |
| 2.14 | Table | ATM Transactions as a Percentage of Total Transactions |
| 3: Acceptance Networks | ||
| 3.1 | Table | POS Terminals by Country |
| 3.2 | Table | POS Terminals per Capita |
| 3.3 | Table | ATMs by Country |
| 3.4 | Table | ATMs per Capita |