Payments with cards soar in first half

ISTANBUL

Payments with credit, prepaid and debit cards rocketed 103 percent in the first half of 2022 on an annual basis to amount to 1.44 trillion Turkish Liras, according to data from the Interbank Card Center (BKM).

Payments with credit cards increased 96 percent in January-June to 1.15 trillion liras, while debit cards made up 262 billion liras of the total sum, rising 135 percent from a year ago.

Payments with prepaid cards grew 28 percent in January-June year-on-year to 63.9 billion liras.

There were 91.1 million credit cards in use in Türkiye as of the end of June, up 14 percent year-on-year, and the number of debit cards and prepaid rose by 11 percent to 157.8 million and 28 percent to 63.9 million, respectively.

[HH] Fastest growth in airline sector

Payments with cards in the airline industry amounted to 55.7 billion, up 298 percent increase, which was the largest annual growth recorded among all industries, according to the BKM.

In terms of annual growth, payments for accommodation came second at 282 percent, i.e. 31 billion liras, followed by food at 236 percent, i.e. 79.6 billion liras.

Payments with cards at gas stations also exhibited a 212 percent year-on-year increase in the first half of the year from a year ago, nearing 142 billion liras.

The growth in the jewelry sector was 162 percent to 33 billion liras, data from the BKM showed.

Online payments with cards also showed a robust 113 percent in the first half of 2022 to 401.5 billion liras from a year ago, accounting for 25.8 percent of all card payments.

In the first six months, payments made with foreign cards in Türkiye amounted to 153 billion liras, marking a 201 percent year-on-year increase.

The payment per transaction with foreign cards on average increased from 1,305 liras in January-June last year to 1,752 in 2022.

Two out of three payments were made through contactless transactions, the BKM said, adding that the amount of contactless payments reached 2.86 billion liras, accounting for 63 percent of payments made at stores.

In 2021, the number of transactions with cards was 5.35 billion, while the volume of transactions stood at 1.52 trillion liras, up from 4.3 billion transactions and 1.04 trillion liras in transaction volume in the previous year.

Back in 2019, the number of transactions with cards and the volume of transactions were 4.3 billion and 906 billion liras, respectively.

The latest available data from the BTK showed that there were around 1.8 million POS terminals in Türkiye as of the end of May.