This material is provided by the PLUS Journal (www.plusworld.org) - the most competent specialized multiregional periodical on Eurasian market (Russia, FSU countries etc.).

Russian market of payments and innovations: Right time for new opportunities

Notwithstanding the continuing global economic crisis, Russia is still one of the most innovative and fast developing markets of payments

To get more detailed information about the Russian and CIS payment card market and its infrastructure please contact:

Vice President, Member of Board | Business Development 
Tel./fax: +7 495 961 1065 (ext. 1201) 
Cell: +7 925 005 4005 
konstantin@plusworld.ru

Contents:

Part 1: Issuing
Part 2: Acquiring Infrastructure
Part 3: Russian payment card market in comparison
Part 4: Trends and Prospects

Part 3:

Russian payment card market in comparison

Nowadays Russian card market is still behind the markets of some countries when measured by statistical ratios. The number of payment cards in circulation as of the beginning of 2010 equals to 0.89 cards per one resident of Russia (in the beginning of 2009 this ratio was 0.84); meanwhile the majority of Western European countries back in 2008 had this ratio in between 1.2 - 2 cards per resident, and in the US and UK it was 3.13 and 2.74 cards per resident, correspondingly.

Notwithstanding the increase in quantitative and quality ratios of the Russian payment cards market, as of today Russian use of payment cards is still significantly behind the level of payment card use in the EU, the US and other developed payment card markets. In 2008 the volume of cashless operations with the use of payment cards in Russia was 2.5% to the GDP, meanwhile in Canada this ratio reached 28.8%, in the UK - 28.1%, and in Germany measured only 6.1% to the GDP.

In the meantime, banking self-service terminal infrastructure development trends in Russia reveal both current success of the banking community in this sphere, and existing growth potential of the Russian ATM market. Experts consider the number of 150-160 thousand ATMs as a benchmark to be reached by the Russian banking community in the next years.

Formally speaking the situation on the Russian banking self-service terminal market is the following: as of the beginning of 2010 such ratio as the number of ATMs installed in Russia per 1 million residents was significantly lower than that of the majority of the developed countries. Russia has 595 ATMs installed per 1 million residents, meanwhile in Canada the same index is 1,799 devices, and 1,445 devices per million are installed in Belgium. It should be noted that Russian ATM infrastructure has reached significant results. In terms of this index Russia has outran Northern European countries compatible with Russia in the density of population (people per square kilometer), namely: Norway (498 ATMs/million people), Sweden - (361) and Finland (324). Moreover, Russian ATM infrastructure has also outnumbered such European countries as Holland (564) and Denmark (559).

In the mean time, in terms of absolute measures of self-service banking device network development, experts saythat Russian lending institutions hold the first place in Central and Eastern Europe 

(CEE) for eight years in a row on the basis ATM installations' growth rate. Fast growing ATM installations in Russia during past 7 years outnumbered France, Germany, Spain and the UK and made Russia the biggest ATM market in Europe by 2008.

The number of POS terminals in Russia is significantly fewer than in countries with well-developed acquiring infrastructure. As of the end of 2009 the number of POS terminals in Russia equaled somewhat more than 2.5 thousand per 1 million residents. In the same time the number of POS terminals in such countries as Canada, Great Britain and France continues to exceed Russian figures for more than 7 times above.

Next "Part 4: Trends and Prospects"