The total number of payment cards issued in Pakistan reached 40.1 million on March 31, 2018 from 39.3 million from previous quarter, registering 1.8 per cent increase, a report of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said.
As far as total number of payment cards are concerned, SBP said the share of debit cards stands at 52.4 per cent, with 21 million cards issued by different commercial banks to their customers. The growth in use of Debit Cards was observed mainly because of its ease of use in spending money.
On the other hand, incentives by banks such as discounts on shopping and restaurants also increase use of Debit Cards throughout the country.
After debit cards, ATM cards are the most popular form of payment cards. The number of ATM cards stands at 21.3 million, with a user base of 8.5 million.
The number of credit cards currently stands at 3.6 million. Only 1.4 million of bank customers use them. The number of credit card users are also increasing gradually, because of lower interest rates, as well as increasing demand of customers who want credit for their urgent needs.
A number of banks recently introduced prepaid cards for their customers.
They have received an impressive response given their convenience and ease of use. Prepaid cards' share currently stands at 0.6 per cent, with 0.2 million users throughout the country.
Moreover, Social Welfare Cards boast second biggest share when it comes to number of users. There are currently 22.2 million social welfare cards in use today, with an 8.9 million user base. These cards also include BISP beneficiaries.
During Jan to March 2018, as many as 142.7 million transactions, valued at Rs.1.6 trillion, were processed by these cards. The lion's share of these transactions were done via Debit Cards, comprising about 80 per cent in volume and 85 per cent of value of transactions.
This was followed by share of proprietary ATM cards, which contributed 11.3 per cent in volume and 10.7 per cent in value of transactions. The rest of transactions were carried by prepaid and social welfare cards.