Published
10/13/2025, 10:48There are no longer any UnionPay International cards on the Kyrgyz banking market. According to data from the National Bank, as of the end of June this year, there are no longer any active cards from this international payment system in the country.
In the first quarter of 2025, there were still two UnionPay cards in circulation, but by the second quarter, they had completely disappeared from the statistics.
The first China Union Pay cards appeared in Kyrgyzstan in 2014. While there were 213 cards in April, by the end of the year their number had grown to 1,903.
Thus, today, international payments are effectively concentrated in the hands of two systems — Visa and Mastercard, which account for more than 6.6 million cards with a market share of 64.5%. The national Elkart system continues to hold a strong position, with 3.65 million cards in circulation, accounting for 35.5% of the total.
Overall, the number of bank cards in Kyrgyzstan has reached 10.3 million, showing an increase of almost 29% over the year. Almost six out of ten cards are in Bishkek, where most of the branches and financial resources are concentrated.
