As of December 1, 2011 number of cardholders in Kazakhstan amounted to 8.8 million

/IRBIS, December 27, 2011/ - As of 01 December 2011, the number of cardholders in Kazakhstan amounted to 8.8 million, according to the National Bank of Kazakhstan. As of December 1, 2011 21 banks and JSC "Kazpost" actually are implementing the emitting of payment cards. These organizations produce and distribute payment cards of international systems (which account for 97.0%): VISA International, MasterCard Worldwide, American Express International and China Union Pay. Moreover, the banks of Kazakhstan produce payment cards for local systems: Altyn Card - JSC "Halyk Bank of Kazakhstan"; SmartAlemCard - "BTA Bank" and the local card of Citibank Kazakhstan - JSC "Citibank Kazakhstan". As of 01 December 2011, banks issued 9.5 million credit cards, and the number of holders of cards made up 8.8 million (compared to the situation on the same date in 2010 - an increase of 10.3%, and 9 8%, respectively). The most common are debit cards, their share was 88.1%, the share of credit cards - 10.3%. The share of debit cards with credit limit and prepaid cards amounted to 1.6% and 0.1% respectively. It is reported that in November 2011 volume of transactions using payment cards issued by Kazakh companies was 400.8 billion (increase compared to November 2010 amounted to 33.7%). The number of transactions for November 2011 totaled 13.6 million, increased in comparison with November 2010 by 13.6%. The increase in number and amount of cash payments was 14.2% (2.7 million transactions) and 46.3% (58.8 billion), operations and cash withdrawal 13.5% (10.9 million . transactions) and 31.8% (342.1 billion), respectively. The main share of cash payments was accomplished through POS-terminals (42.7% and 77.0% of the total number and volume of cashless payments) and ATM (45.8% and 15.6% respectively). Operations on the issue of cash were primarily processed through automated teller machines (97.8% and 88.4% of the total number and volume of cash withdrawal transactions of money). [2011-12-27]