OREANDA-NEWS. February 28, 2008. In order to reduce the use of cash for retail payments, and reduce the off-bank circulation of cash, the National Bank of Uzbekistan for Foreign Economic Activity (NBU) continued to increase the number of plastic cards issued into circulation, expand and improve the services provided to the holders of these cards, optimize the teller and terminal infrastructure, and servicing of the plastic card holders, reported the press-centre of NBU.

In 2007 the bank issued additional 228,800 cards thereby increasing their ottal number to over 1,14 million. The total volume of operations conducted by these cards made up over 104.76 billion soums as of 1 January 2008, which is almost the double of the figure recorded as of the same date of the previous year.

Fast growth has been recorded for the circulation of non-cash payments thorugh the retail trade and service points accepting payments through plastic cards. They made up over 63,4 billion soums in 2007, which exceeds the 2006 result 2,2 times.

The number of trade and service enterprises accepting payments through soum plastic cards has been increased to 2,653. The total of 2,846 payment terminals were installed in them.