Uzbekistan 2025

Market Overview Payment Organisation National Interbank Payment System (UZKART).  Domestic Card Brand UzCard cards.  Market Structure Historically, more than 80% of cards issued were domestic-only UzCard cards using Duet smart card technology. Since 2015, UzCard cards have been issued as EMV cards branded with the new UzCard logo. From 2018, UzCards are co-badged with UnionPay. […]

Ukraine 2025

Market Overview Payment Organisation PROSTIR (Ukrainian Payments Area), formerly NSMEP.  Ukrainian Interbank Payment Systems Member Association “EMA”  Domestic Card Brand PROSTIR cards (replacing NSMEP cards).  UkrKart, cards, some are co-badged, Maestro.  Market Structure PROSTIR, the new domestic contactless card scheme, has won increased support from the Ukrainian payments industry.  The first Mastercard and VISA programmes […]

Russia 2025

Market Overview Payment Organisation National Payments Council Association. National Payment Card System (NCPS).  Domestic Card Brand MIR cards, also co-badged Mastercard, VISA, JCB, or UnionPay. Zolotaya Korona “Golden Crown” cards  Market Structure In 2016, the Russian banks started the domestic MIR card payments system, designed to take on VISA and Mastercard.  Sberbank, the Savings Bank […]

Moldova 2025

Market Overview Payment Organisation MoldMediaCard Domestic Card Brand None.  Market Structure Moldovan retail banks issue cards with one of the Mastercard or VISA brands.  While ATM transactions are the dominant form of card use, POS payments are growing fast, showing a CAGR of 54.85% between 2019 and 2023. Over the same period, ATM withdrawals grew […]

Kazakhstan 2025

Market Overview Payment Organisation Interbank Card Processing Centre (ICPC).  Domestic Card Brand Altyn Card.  Market Structure Though two banks issue proprietary local debit cards, nearly all cards are internationally branded. Three banks issue UnionPay cards.  VISA predominates, with a market share of 50.35%. Central bank figures show that 51.9% of cards in circulation are classed […]

Kyrgyzstan 2025

Market Overview Payment Organisation Interbank Card Processing Centre (ICPC).  Domestic Card Brand Elkart cards (Elkart), from 2016, also co-badged UnionPay  Interregional Zolotaya Korona cards, many co-badged AlaiCard  Market Structure The Kyrgyz card payments market is at an early stage of development and suffered a setback with the upheavals of 2010. VISA is the dominant international […]

Georgia 2025

Market Overview Payment Organization None.  Domestic Card Brand PAY debit cards.  Market Structure Cards per capita reached 2.38 in 2023, a 13.98% rise from 2022. Cards issued have more than doubled since the 2008 Russian incursion. POS payments to merchants are much higher than the norm for emerging payment markets. All Georgian banks are privately-owned. Foreign capital […]

Belarus 2025

Market Overview Payment Organisation JSC ‘Banking Processing Center’ (BPC) Domestic Card Brand BelKart cards, some banks co-badge Belkart with Maestro.  Market Structure Cards issued reached 2.10 per capita in 2023, up from 0.36 in 2006. Debit cards predominate, and the BelKart scheme accounted for 34% of all cards. Only about 5% of cards issued are […]