In Kyrgyzstan, the number of bank cards has reached nearly 10 million

The bank card market in Kyrgyzstan continues to grow—the total number of cards has nearly reached 10 million. According to the National Bank, there were 9.9 million cards in circulation in 2025. This is 7.9% more than the previous year.

The market’s growth is occurring against the backdrop of changing user preferences. Despite the increase in the total number of cards, demand for cards from the national payment system “Elkart” has declined significantly. Their number stood at 2.6 million, and annual issuance fell by 29.9%.

The decline in interest in “Elkart” was also reflected in the market structure. While these cards accounted for 39.8% of all cards in circulation in 2024, their share had fallen to 25.8% by the end of 2025.

International payment systems drove most of the growth. Specifically, Visa’s market share increased from 58.5% to 73.4%. Mastercard’s share declined slightly—from 0.8% to 0.7%—while UnionPay virtually disappeared from the market, reducing its presence from 0.03% to 0.01%.

Bank card user activity also continues to grow. In 2025, more than 253.1 million transactions were processed, totaling 243.9 billion KGS. Compared to 2024, the number of transactions increased by 0.4%, and their total value grew by 13.2%.