BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, August 18. The total number of active banking payment cards in Kyrgyzstan reached 6.102 million as of June 2023, which is a 16.6 percent increase since the beginning of the year, Trend reports.
According to the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan, the majority of these cards (3.247 million, or 53.2 percent) were linked to the national payment system "Elcart." Specifically, "Elcart" encompassed 3.242 million cards (53.13 percent), while "Elcart-UPI" had 5,100 cards (0.1 percent).
At the same time, the total number of payment cards in Kyrgyzstan issued by international payment systems reached 2.855 million, making up 46.8 percent of all the cards in the country.
The distribution of these international payment cards is as follows:
Visa – 2.682 million cards (43.96 percent);
"Zolotaya Korona" – 94,200 cards (1.5 percent);
MasterCard – 51,800 cards (0.85 percent);
UnionPay International – 26,400 cards (0.43 percent).
Meanwhile, a total of 53.6 million transactions were conducted via payment cards in Kyrgyzstan from January through June 2023. The value of these transactions amounted to 203 billion soms ($2.2 billion).