As of the end of March 2026, the total number of payment cards issued in Ukraine reached 151.7 million, a 2% increase compared to the start of this year.
This is stated in a report by the NBU, the Ukrainian News agency informs.
Thus, the number of transactions (non-cash and cash withdrawals) using payment cards in Ukraine and abroad in the first quarter of 2026 amounted to 2.3 billion, and their total value was UAH 1,830.6 billion (in the first quarter of 2025, 2,191.3 million transactions were carried out for a total of UAH 1,646.5 billion).
Of these, 2,208.8 million transactions were non-cash, totaling UAH 1,232.5 billion. This represents an increase of 5.9% and 14.8%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2025.
96 out of 100 payment card transactions were non-cash.
The share of non-cash transactions by value in the first quarter of 2026 rose to 67.3% of the total value of payment card transactions, and by number to 96% (in the first quarter of 2025, these figures were 65.2% and 95.2%, respectively).
An analysis of the distribution of cashless transactions by type shows that in the first quarter of this year, the largest number of payment card transactions, both by volume and value, occurred in retail and service networks (74.3% and 52.3%, respectively). A total of 1,640.4 million transactions were processed there, amounting to UAH 644.1 billion.
“Card-to-card” transfers in the first quarter of 2026 accounted for about a quarter of the total value (25.3%) and less than a tenth of the total number (7.2%). In the first quarter of 2025, these accounted for 28.1% by value and 7.8% by volume. Online payments for goods and services accounted for 16.9% by value and 14.5% by volume.
During the reporting period, the average amount per transaction was:
- in retail and service networks – UAH 393 (in the first quarter of last year – UAH 344),
- for “card-to-card” transfers – UAH 1,968 (UAH 1,845),
- for online purchases of goods and services – UAH 654 (580).
Payment infrastructure is growing.
The number of active POS terminals in retail and service networks in March increased by nearly 1% compared to the start of the year (to 563,400 units), while the number of points of sale and service locations accepting payment cards increased by 6.6% (to 654,500).
The ATM network has remained virtually unchanged since the start of the year, totaling 15,700 ATMs.
As of the end of March 2026, the total number of payment cards issued in Ukraine reached 151.7 million. This is 2% more compared to the beginning of this year.
At the same time, the number of payment cards used for monthly spending transactions decreased slightly—by 6.2% to 61.4 million (as of January 1, 2026 – 65.4 million).
This occurred due to the expiration of a number of government social support programs for citizens (such as “Winter Support,” “Warm Winter,” etc.), under which payment cards were used at the beginning of the year.
Overall, more than half (over 57.1%) of active payment cards in March were contactless cards.
Tokenized payment cards also remain popular among Ukrainians; their number has remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of the year, totaling 20.6 million. Among all active cards, one in three (33.5%) is tokenized.
As a result, an increasingly smaller share of transactions is carried out in retail and service networks involving the physical reading of data from the payment card. In the first quarter of this year, such transactions accounted for 1.5% by value and 0.9% by volume (in the first quarter of 2025—3.1% and 2.2%, respectively).
The remaining transactions were contactless (using contactless cards or via smartphones and other gadgets). Their total value in the first quarter of 2026 was UAH 634.4 billion (in the first quarter of 2025 – UAH 507.2 billion).
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the number of transactions using payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks and financial institutions in 2025 was 9,512.3 million, and their total value was UAH 7,157.2 billion, which is 10% higher in terms of volume and 9% higher in terms of value compared to 2024.
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