OREANDA-NEWS. In Q1 2017, the National bank of Ukraine states that cashless payments remained firmly on an upward trend. From January through March 2017, the share of cashless payments using payment cards rose to 38.4% (versus 35.5% at the beginning of 2017).

The total number of transactions with payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks amounted to 679 million, with the value of transactions totaling almost UAH 426 billion. The number and value of transactions with payment cards increased by 28.2% and 22.9% respectively, compared to the same period a year ago.

In Q1 2017 against the beginning of the year:

payment cards rose by 0.8%, amounting to 58.1 million pieces;

contactless payment cards increased by 21.2%, totaling 2.4 million pieces; and

e-payment cards surged by 55.6%, amounting to 85,000 pieces.

In the first three months of 2017, the payment infrastructure expanded. The number of trade and service enterprises that provide their clients with opportunities to make cashless payments rose by 6.8% (by 9,975 units), amounting to 155, 913 units.

In Q1 2017, the network of payment terminals expanded by 3.5%, amounting to 227,000 terminals as of 1 April 2017 (as of 1 January 2017 –219,200 terminals).

As of 1 April 2017, Privatbank PJSC, Oschadbank JSC and Raiffeisen Bank Aval JSC took the lead among the banks by the number of payment cards issued and the extension of the network of card service infrastructure.

By regions, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv oblasts registered the largest increase in the number of payment cards, ATMs and POS terminals.