The Interbank Card Center (BKM) has shared data for the first 6 months of 2021. According to the report from BKM, card payments totaled TRY 709 billion in the first half of the year, while public/tax payments and the jewelry sector saw the largest increases in card payments.
Online card payments reached TRY 188 billion with 77 percent growth, and the number of contactless payments made in the first six months of the year tripled compared with the same period last year.
Card payment volume grew by 42 percent
According to the data released, as of the end of June there are 79.8 million credit cards, 141.5 million debit cards and 50 million prepaid cards in use in Turkey. Compared with June 2020, the number of credit cards rose by 11 percent, debit cards by 3 percent and prepaid cards by 43 percent. The total number of cards reached 271.3 million, an 11 percent increase over the same period last year.
In the first six months of 2021, the total payment amount made with credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards rose by 42 percent compared with the same period of the previous year, to TRY 709 billion. The slowdown in card payments during the intense pandemic days of the second quarter of 2020, caused by the measures taken at the time (the base effect), also contributed to this high growth in card payments.
In the first six months of the year, TRY 588.6 billion of card payments were made with credit cards, TRY 111.5 billion with debit cards and TRY 9.2 billion with prepaid cards. Compared with the same period of the previous year, growth was 40 percent for credit card payments and 47 percent for debit card payments, while payments made with prepaid cards grew by 236 percent. The base effect also played a role in these growth rates.
Big increases in public/tax payments and the jewelry sector
In card payments, the sectors with the largest increase in the first six months of 2021 compared with the same period last year were “public/tax payments” at 78 percent and the “jewelry” sector at 77 percent. The “accommodation” and “airlines” sectors, which also declined in card payments last year, were among the sectors with the largest increases this year with the return to normal, growing by 74 percent and 73 percent respectively. The “building materials” sector was another sector with a large increase, at 68 percent growth.
Online card payments reached TRY 188 billion
As digital transformation continues at a rapid pace, online card payments, which have become an indispensable part of our lives, continued their fast rise. According to BKM data, a total of TRY 188 billion of online card payments were made in the first six months of 2021. Accordingly, online card payments grew by 77 percent compared with the first six months of 2020. Online card payments made up 21 percent of total card payments in the first six months of 2020, and this year their share increased to more than 25 percent of total card payments.
Among contactless payments, which continue to rise thanks to being fast, easy and hygienic, the number of transactions in the first half of 2021 tripled compared with the same period last year and reached 1.47 billion. While a total of 1.73 billion contactless payments were made in 2020, in just the first 6 months of 2021 almost as many contactless payments were made as in all of last year. The share of contactless payments in in-store payments rose to 48 percent. This share, which was 22 percent in the same period last year, reaching this level shows that contactless payments have become one of the indispensable payment methods of our lives; now 1 out of every 2 in-store card payments is made contactless.
