use in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) between 2004 and 2006 from
London-based group Retail Banking Research (RBR) reports that,
while debit cards still dominate in the region, the number of
credit cards more than tripled in the two-year period to reach 27
million. In total, the number of payment cards (including debit,
charge and credit cards) grew by 64 percent to 187 million
items.
Three countries – Russia, Ukraine and Poland – account for 70
percent of all cards in the region, and Russia and Ukraine have
extended their lead as the largest CEE card markets (74.7 million
and 31.4 million cards, respectively, compared with 23.8 million in
Poland, 9.5 million in Romania and 9.1 million in the Czech
Republic). The debit card is by far the most widely held type of
payment card in the region, representing 83 percent of all cards in
issue; this contrasts with Western Europe, where the figure is 52
percent.
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In terms of card use, a total of 1.4 billion payments was made in
the CEE region in 2006, an increase of two-thirds on 2004,
indicating, says RBR, that card use is growing more rapidly than
cardholding.
Banks dominate cards issuance: at the end of 2006, financial
institutions had issued 98 percent of payment cards in the 13
countries surveyed. According to RBR, banks have capitalised on a
distinct advantage over other kinds of issuers to attach a debit
card to an existing account or use an existing relationships to
market other card products to their customers. “In a region in
which credit rating agencies are either not present or have only
recently been established, banks also have an advantage in that
they can determine the creditworthiness of their clients based on
previous transaction history,” said the report.
Although most CEE countries began rolling out their EMV-compliant
cards and POS terminals in 2003, some, such as Slovakia and
Slovenia, started this process only in 2004 and Romania not until
2005. Estonia leads the region in terms of the number of EMV cards
issued, with three-quarters or more of its cards in compliance by
the end of 2006.
In absolute terms, Russia leads, having reissued 4.5 million such
cards by the end of 2006. In contrast, “little progress” has been
made in Bulgaria, Romania and the Ukraine, concluded RBR.
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