As of March 1, 2010, 21 second-tier banks and JSC «Kazpost» realise issue of payment cards. Second-tier banks issue payment cards of local systems: Altyn card – by JSC «Halyk Bank of Kazakhstan»; SmartAlemCard – by JSC «ВТА Bank»; TemirCard – by JSC «Темirbаnк»; SityCard – by JSC «Citybank Kazakhstan». Also commercial banks of Kazakhstan issue and distribute payment cards of international systems: VISA International, Europay International, American Express International, China Union Pay and Diners Club International.
As of March 1, 2010, the number of cards, issued by banks of Kazakhstan, was 7.7 million, the number of card holders was 7.3 million (growth – by 11.1% and 11.1% respectively, in comparison with the same period of the last year). As the most widespread cards, the cards of international payment systems have the share of 97.9% and the local cards – 2.1% respectively. As of March 1, 2009 this ratio was 97.6% and 2.4% correspondingly.
In February 2010 the value of transactions using payment cards issued by banks of Kazakhstan was KZT 226.4 billion (22.1% growth in comparison with the same period of the previous year). In February 2010 volume of transactions was 9.9 million transactions (growth – by 16.6% in comparison with the same period of the last year).
Growth of the volume and value of non-cash payments has reached 30.8 % (1.8 million transactions) and 65.9 % (26.7 billion tenge), and of the volume and value of operations on cash withdrawal – 13.8 % (8.1 million transactions) and 17.9 % (199.8 billion tenge) accordingly.
National Bank of Kazakhstan
