Plastic cards are gaining popularity with Russians, which primarily benefits foreign payment systems. The Central Bank of Russia is drawing up a report which says that the market is led by VISA (with a market share of 43.9%), followed by MASTERCARD (38.5%), ZOLOTAYA KORONA (Golden Crown, 5.8%), SBERCARD (4.2%), STB (3.3%) and UNION CARD (2.7%). VISA has officially announced that the issue of its cards in Russia rose by 42% year-on-year to 32.4m in 2006. Analysts are certain that the foreign payment systems will strengthen their grip on the market further. Last year, the issue of plastic cards by Russian banks rose by 37% Y/Y to 74.5m, the CBR said. Operations on the cards expanded by 51.7% to R4.3 trillion, with R4.0 trln of operations, at 93.5% of the total, accounting for cash withdrawals.
Source: VEDOMOSTI, April 6, 2007
