NUR-SULTAN – The volume of non-cash transactions in Kazakhstan using Kazakh and foreign issuers’ payment cards between Jan.-Nov. 2020 amounted to almost 30 trillion tenge (US$71 billion). The number increased by 2.6 times over the year, a record figure of, according to a report by ranking.kz.
Photo credits: goodnewsfinland.com.
Kazakh residents increasingly prefer non-cash payments, this became noticeable during pandemic.
“The share of non-cash payments with payment cards in Kazakhstan between Jan.-Nov. 2020 amounted to 66.7 percent. The previous year, the figure reached 44.2 percent, the share of non-cash payments five years ago was merely 10 percent,” the report stated.
The average check of one non-cash transaction is 12,200 tenge (US$29) for Jan.-Nov. 2020 which is slightly more than the previous year’s figure – 11,400 tenge (US$27).
The amount of one non-cash transaction via the internet and a mobile phone increased from 15,600 tenge (US$37) to 17,000 tenge (US$40), while the non-cash transaction through a POS terminal decreased to 5,300 tenge (US$12.57).
The share of payments via the internet, mobile phones and POS-terminals accounts for 99.6 percent of non-cash payments’s total volume. The previous year, the share was 99.5 percent.
Preference by regions
Card payments are popular in the Almaty (78.7 percent), Nur-Sultan (73 percent) and Atyrau region (65.7 percent) residents.
“I prefer to use a card for payments, because there are many advantages and it is very handy. First, there is a cash-back service that most banks run, secondly, paper money no longer seems comfortable nor reasonable to use during this time. Lastly, one can easily track spendings via mobile apps which is useful,” shared Nur-Sultan resident Aksaule Raimbekova.
Meanwhile, North Kazakhstan region and East Kazakhstan region residents prefer cash payments. The share of non-cash payments with payment cards is 45.6 percent and 47.9 percent respectively.
The growth in the volume of non-cash payments was observed in all regions of Kazakhstan. The most significant surge was recorded in the Turkestan region along with Shymkent city. The volume of non-cash payments increased by 6.8 times, reaching 2.7 trillion tenge (US$6.4 billion).
Another significant growth was noted in the Zhambyl and Kyzylorda regions. The volume of non-cash payments increased by 6 times, and reached 824.6 billion tenge (US$1.9 billion) and by 5.4 times, and reached 653.4 billion tenge (US$1.5 billion), respectively.
The smallest growth was observed in Almaty, although the region still leads in non-cash payments’ volume reaching 11.6 trillion tenge (US$27 billion).
In the Akmola region, citizens give almost equal preference for both card and cash payments.
Globally, Sweden, Finland and China lead the way among the top cashless society countries.
