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Russia's payment market 2017: brief overview

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According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, as of October 1, 2017 Russian banks had issued 267 219 mln payment cards. Year-on-year growth amounted to 6.4% as compared to October 1, 2016 (250 957 mln cards); at that, it exceeds YOY growth of 2016 by 4.5%. In total, Russians held265 mlncards, 150.1mln of them being active. As compared with the data of October 1, 2016, the figures grew by 6.3% (249.5 mln cards as ofOctober 1, 2016) and 7.8% (139.2 mlncards) accordingly.

Notably, the share of active cards is also growing: 56.64% in 2017 compared to 53.54% in 2016.

Issuance of payment cards in Russia

The share of debit (charge) cards out of the total of 235 956 mln cards amounted to 88.3%,the share of credit products was 31 263 mln cards(11.7% of the issuance). At that, the share of debit cards in the structure of payment cards issue in the Russian Federation increased by 0.1%, while by way of contrast, the share of credit cards reduced by 0.1% year-on-year. It should be noted, that the reduction of the share of credit cards in the issuance structure has been observed for the second year running(in 2015 their share decreased by 1%). However, according to the United Credit Bureau (UCB), banks raised the issuance of credit cards by 14% in Q3 2017. Total in July - September 2017, banks distributed2.31 mln cardswith the total pre-approved credit limit of over 145.96 bln rubles, in the same period last year 2.02 mln cards were distributed with the credit limit exceeding 106.88 bln rubles. Experts believe, that the main driver of growth of the credit cards delivered in Q3 was consistent lowering of the key rate of the Bank of Russia and consequent reduction of credit interest rates.

It should also be stated that Russian banks also issue prepaid cards, the total number of which in the turnover is quite significant, by various estimates…

Number of payment cards issued by credit organizations, by types of cards, th.


Total bank cards Including:
Charge cards of which: Credit cards
Charge cards with overdraft
1 2 3 4 5
2017
As of01.10.17 -
As of01.07.17 -
As of01.04.17 -
As of01.01.17

Bank card issuers in RF

As a result of the current policy of the Bank of Russia aimed at reduction of the number of operating banks (intensive license revocation and resolution of certain credit institutions), the total number of credit organizations issuing or acquiring payment cards is reducing. Thus, over a year (from October 1, 2016 tillOctober 1, 2017) the number of banks operating with payment cards in RF reduced by 12% (from 458 to 403 credit institutions). Aye are arlier, this index demonstrateda …

Number of credit or ganizations involved in issuance and/oracquiring of payment cards


Total of credit organizations Of which those performing:
Issuance Issuance and/or acquiring Acquiring
1 2 3 4 5
2017
As of01.10.17 -
As of01.07.17 -
As of01.04.17 -
As of01.01.17

Share of non-cashcard transactions

Regarding the number of cash less payment card transactions,positive dynamics is clearly seen in Russia and beyond its borders. Their share in the total number of card operations has been growing. Over a year, the number of payment card transactions effected by individuals increased by 33.5%:from 12 784.7 mlnas of October 1, 2016 up to17 075.3 mln in October 1, 2017.The total operations included 74.8% (12 801.8 mln) commodity and service payment operations. This is 2.2% more as compared with the respective year-on-year figure: at the end of nine months of 2016, their share amounted to 72.6% (9289.1 mln transactionsout of 12 784.7 mln).

The share of cash with drawals by individuals arrivedat 14.3% in the total number of card tran sactions in H1 2017. This is 5.6% less than the year before, when it was estimated at the level of 19.9% (2 552.1mlnof12 7847 mln card transactions).

Payment card transactions performed by legal entities in Russia and beyond showed substantial growth. Thus, according to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation as of October 1, 2017, this indicator was equal to…

Infrastructure of cashess payment acceptance in Russia

Growth of the volume of cashless transactions on bank cards is also correlated with the trends to be observed in the dynamics of bank card acceptance infrastructure in RF territory. According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, payment cards acceptance infrastructure in Russia as of 01.10.2017 is represented by …

MIR National Payment System: cards issued, infrastructurebuilt

According to the National Payment Card System (NSPK),377 banks are currently participating in MIR payment system; over the year, this figure grew more than twice (from 168 banks as of December 2016). Almost all of the member banks are acquirers, 148 of them are MIR card issuers.
MIR payment cards issuance was launchedin December 2015, with their mass issuance started last autumn. In October 2016, MIR card holders performed about a million Mir card transactions. Over a year, this figure rose by 80 times and amounted to 80 mlntransactions. In November 2017, the number of transactions on the local cards exceeded…

Contactless payments:Three “Pays” in Russia

Accordingtoa Visasurveyon perceptivity of national markets to innovations, Russia together with the USA and Great Britain entered the Top-3 with respect to the number of generated tokens while using such payment applications as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay. Atthat, Russiais much ahead of other marketsin Android Pay, being No1 in the world in this regard.

The Visa survey conducted in September 2017 shows that every tenth resident of Russia's big cities (11%) goes shopping using a smartphone. Every second residentofthe big cities of Russia (59%) knows about contactless method of payment by smartphones. That being said, over one third of those who do not practice such payments …

Learn more about the Russian card market

If you are interested in more detailed information on the Russian payment market, analytical reviews, expert assessment of your company's business opportunities in Russia and contacts with the Russian card market players, contact the PLUS- Alliance Business Development Director Konstantin Grizov:
e-mail: Konstantin@plusworld.ru,
tel: +7 (925) 005-40-05.