Paying with cards to earn Turkey $21 billion

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

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If consumers in Turkey use only debit cards and credit cards by 2015, the country will earn 43 billion Turkish Liras ($21.5 billion), according to a report prepared by Mastercard and Boğaziçi University’s Center for Economics and Econometrics.

“Important steps toward a cashless life have been taken in the world. We, as Mastercard, are working on new technologies and new payment systems to support a cashless life,” Mete Güney, Mastercard Eastern Europe’s general manager said during a press meeting in Istanbul yesterday. 

The report reveals that the social cost of using cash was 4.7 billion liras in 2012, while using card-
payment systems was 960 million liras. Also, if 100 liras are spent by cards instead of cash, its gain of fertility is 0.67 liras. 

Prof. Refik Erzan, head of the economics department of Boğaziçi University, said 33 percent of total spending worth 992 billion liras was made by cards last year. If the consumers only use debit and credit cards and do not use cash anymore by 2015, it will make a contribution at three main points: first, the economy will gain 11.4 billion liras from productivity. For instance, banks will not need to employ staff for cash security or to provide more ATMs. The informal economy’s cost in gross domestic product (GDP) was around 30 percent last year. When the informal economy becomes regulated and formalized by the use of cards, it will gain 11.6 billion liras. It will also contribute to the growth and gain 19.8 billion liras. In total, it will gain 43 billion liras in 2015. It will make 2.65 percent of the GDP.

The report also says that while the number of debit cards rose from 6 million in 1991 to 15 million in 2012, credit card numbers rose from 76,000 to 50 million in the same period.