Number of payment cards up 15% to 132 million pieces in 2024 due to "national cashback" and eSupport

In 2024, the total number of payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks and financial institutions increased by 15% to 132 million pieces compared to 2023.

This is evidenced by data from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The growth occurred, in particular, due to the issuance of payment cards within the framework of state social support programs for citizens "National Cashback", "Winter eSupport", "eBook".

The number of payment cards with which expenditure transactions were carried out monthly increased at the same pace.

Thus, the number of active cards for the year increased by 13% - to 58.8 million pieces (44.5% of issued payment cards).

During 2024, the trend of previous years regarding the growth of the number of contactless active payment cards also continued.

Their number in December 2024 increased by 14% compared to December 2023 - to 35 million cards.

In general, more than half (60%) of active payment cards are contactless.

Tokenized payment cards (NFC technology) also retain their popularity.

Thus, in December 2024, compared to December 2023, their number increased by 33% - to 16.5 million.

That is, every fourth active payment card is tokenized.

As a result, approximately 95% of the number and amount of non-cash transactions in the retail network in 2024 were carried out using contactless payment technology and NFC technology.

In 2024, the number of payment terminals in retail and service networks increased by 10.5% compared to 2023 - to 496,600 (of which 97.5% are contactless terminals).

This also exceeds the number of payment terminals at the end of 2021 - by 16.4%.

That is, the terminal network in Ukraine has fully recovered from the losses of the first year of the full-scale invasion and continues to expand.

The number of points of sale and service provision that accept payment cards, in particular on the Internet, also increased by 12.8% compared to 2023, to 518,400 (as of January 01, 2024 - 459,700).

The number of operating ATMs remained almost unchanged throughout 2024 (15,700).

As Ukrainian News Agency reported, earlier about 30 banks and financial institutions lowered limits on card transfers to UAH 50,000 per month.

From October 1, 2024, the NBU set a limit of UAH 150,000 per month for outgoing transfers of individuals from card to card (P2P, person-to-person) for six months, although before that it was considering a stricter limit - UAH 100,000.

In Ukraine, financial monitoring is stricter than in Poland, writes Obozrevatel, referring to a response to the publication from PKO Bank Polski.

Polish banks, unlike Ukrainian ones, allow Ukrainians to buy cryptocurrency.