Turkey now second largest credit card user in Europe

ISTANBUL — The use of debit and credit cards has rapidly increased in Turkey in recent years. England ranks first in the EU with 151.6 million bank cards and 56.4 million credit cards, while Turkey has 145.6 million bank cards and 54.3 million credit cards.

According to data from Interbank Card Center (BKM) and the European Central Bank (ECB), the number of cards with aggregate payment functions climbed to 738 million while nearly 2 trillion Euros have been spent using those cards. The principal economy of the EU, Germany, followed England with 133.1 million cards and France came in third with 82.3 million cards. Spain and Italy had 68.7 million and 68.1 million cards, respectively.

As a result of its economic crisis, Greece had 13.3 million bank cards, while the lowest numbers were found in the island countries of Malta and Greek Cyprus.

England also ranked first in the European Union for its number of credit cards with 56.4 million.

France and Poland followed England with 26.8 million and 6.4 million, respectively. The lowest numbers of credit cards were in Slovenia with 112,000, Malta with 185,000 and Latvia with 331,000.

Turkey had a total of 145.6 million bank cards and 54.3 credit cards in 2012. According to the data of BKM for March 2014, the total number of bank cards and credit cards in Turkey climbed to 159.5 million and 57.3 million, respectively.