As per the latest figures released by the Central Bank of Lebanon, the number of outstanding bank payment cards reached 2,063,252 cards at end-August 2023, down from 2,379,207 cards at end-2022, witnessing a drop of 315,955 cards or 13.3% over the first eight months of 2023.
In detail, resident payment cards continued to make up the majority of payment cards in Lebanon (97.1% or 2.003.636 outstanding cards), with non-resident payment cards constituting the rest (2.9% or 59,616 outstanding cards) at end-August 2023.
Outstanding resident payment cards recorded a 13.5% decrease in the first eight months of 2023, while outstanding non-resident payment cards reported a 4.4% decrease over the same period.
Looking at the distribution of payment cards by type, debit cards took the lion’s share with 68% (91,403,676 outstanding cards) of the total.
Debit cards were followed by repaid cards with a share of 24.3% (502,281 outstanding cards) of the total.
Credit cards comprised 4.4% (90,381 outstanding cards) of the total, while charge cards comprised 3.2% (66,914 outstanding cards) of the total, as per the latest figures by the Central Bank of Lebanon.
It’s worth noting that outstanding payment cards have followed a sharp downward trend since the start of the crisis, as individuals in Lebanon gravitate towards a cash-based economy.
