BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 24. A total of 3,782,274 Visa payment cards were in circulation in Kyrgyzstan as of March 31, 2024, Trend reports.
Data from the country’s National Bank indicates that this figure rose by 56 percent compared to the same date in 2023, when there were 2,422,922 cards.
At the end of the first quarter of 2024, Visa cards accounted for 50.6 percent of all cards in circulation. In comparison, at the same time in 2023, they represented 41.7 percent. The majority of Visa cards were in Bishkek, totaling 2,837,161 cards.
Meanwhile, the total number of banking payment cards in circulation in Kyrgyzstan reached 7,466,599 as of March 31, 2024, which is a 28.4 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
The national payment system Elkart accounted for 3,530,190 cards in circulation, constituting 47.3 percent of the total. Among them, 3,526,100 were on Elkart (47.2 percent), and 4,090 were on Elkart-UPI (0.1 percent). At the same time, international systems accounted for 3,936,409 cards (52.7 percent of the total number of cards in circulation).