OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2014. Sberbank reached another milestone in the development of its bankcard business – the number of active Sberbank cards in circulation has exceeded 100 mln. According to the CBR, there are more than 220 million cards in Russia, and more than 45% of them were issued by Sberbank of Russia.

“Of the 100 mln active Sberbank bankcards more than 14% are already credit cards, and about 86% are debit” – pointed out Rostislav Yanykin, Managing Director, Head of the Bank Card and Cashing Department at Sberbank of Russia. “We are actively pushing credit cards and implementing new processes, which have allowed Sberbank to increase its market share by 6.2% in 2014.

We believe that Sberbank’s current market share of 31% will continue to increase, but our primary task for the near future is quality, not quantity. Regarding debit cards, our focus has shifted towards increasing the share of premium cards for the payroll channel. This year in place of niche cards Visa Electron and Maestro we have begun issuing Classic/Standard or higher – today our market share for these cards exceeds 50%. In the coming year we will continue to work on this business, increasing not only the number of cards, but also the quality.”