Banks, Financial Services, Latvia

The number of bankcards issued by the Latvian banks dropped as compared to the end of 2015 when the Latvian banks had issued 2.318 million cards.

The number payment cards decreased because the statistics no longer included the cards issued by Trasta Komercbanka, which currently is under liquidation, and because the number of bankcards issued by ten other banks contracted.

At the end of the first quarter, Swedbank had issued the highest number of payment cards, but their number dropped to 969,057 at the end of March 2016 from 982,146 at the end of last year.

SEB Banka followed with 524,141 payment cards at the end of March 2016, Citadele Bank with 353,155 cards and DNB Banka with 185,175 cards.

As reported, the number of payment card transactions increased 9.7% or 6.098 million year-on-year to 68.814 million in the first quarter of this year.

The number of purchases made with payment cards during the period increased 13.1% or 6.499 million to 56.015 million purchases, and the total value of the purchases rose 9.1% or EUR 88.744 million to EUR 1.059 billion in the first quarter of 2016.

There was a slight growth in cash withdrawals by using payment cards, with the number of such transactions growing 0.2% or 200 year-on-year to 72,100, and the total value of such transactions rising 3.9% or EUR 82,900 to EUR 2.189 million in the first quarter of this year.