The FINANCIAL — In total, 7,786,692 payment credit cards were in circulation in 2012 and 2,284,988 units – in the first two months of 2013, out of which the number of Visa cards was 5,587,398 units in 2012 (1,830,931 units in 2013), EC/MC – 606,957 units (113,543 units in 2013) and other – 1,592,337 units (340,514 units in 2013), according to the National Bank of Georgia.
The number of payment debit cards which were in circulation in 2012 reached 44,849,738 units in 2012 and 8,305,308 units in 2013 in total. Among them, Visa cards consisted of 36,908,046 units (6,237,593 units in 2013), EC/MC – 3,755,239 units (1,072,043 units in 2013) and other – 4,186,453 units (995,672 units in 2013).
Georgia is number one in the Caucasus when it comes to the number of Visa cards in the country, and number two after Armenia when it comes to the PV/TV ratio, according to Svetlana Georbelidze, Visa Country Manager for Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Moldova.
A record amount of money transferred was observed in Georgia in 2012, statistics provided by National Bank of Georgia show. The total amount of money transfers in 2012 was USD 1,334,513 thousand; the sum is USD 66,387,000 more than it was in 2011. Georgia received the largest volume of money transfers of the last five years in 2012.
The average volume of money transferred to Georgia has always been more than a billion, although 2009 was an exception. With USD 841,778,000 Georgians received the lowest measure of money transferred by their relatives who live or work in foreign countries as job migrants that year.
Russia, Greece, Italy, the USA, Ukraine, Turkey, Spain, the UK, Israel, Germany and Kazakhstan lead the list of the top countries from which more than a million is transmitted monthly. Russia still remains without rival as the number one remittance-source country, as it is from there that 53.4% of transferred money is transmitted. While in December more than USD 60 million was transferred to Georgia from Russia, the amount of money coming from the other ten countries combined was just USD 40.25 million.
July is the leading month in inflows with a total value of USD 117,145 thousand, and December in terms of outflows – with USD 11,782 thousand, according to the statistics of money transfers per month provided by NBG.
Unistream holds the largest share of money transfers. Money transfers by systems show that people mostly use Unistream, Western Union and Anelik for sending money. The inflow amount via Western Union was USD 168,006 thousand in 2012, and the outflow – USD 36,924 thousand. This is followed by Unistream with USD 232,766 thousand inflow and USD 11,583 thousand outflow. Third place is held by Anelik with USD 108,875 thousand inflow and USD 6,119 thousand outflow.
In January 2013, the volume of money transfers from abroad constituted USD 94.1 million, which is USD 9.7 million, or 11.5 percent, more than the same amount for January 2012.
The 11 biggest donor countries, from which the volume of such transfers exceeded USD 1 million in January, were responsible for 93.2 percent of total money transfers from abroad. As National Bank of Georgia said, in January 2012 the share of these 11 countries constituted 91.4 percent of the total volume of money transfers. In January 2013, USD 9.5 million (or GEL 15.7 million) was transferred from Georgia as opposed to the USD 6.9 million (or GEL 11.5 million) in January 2012.
There was an increase in transactions via the internet in 2012 compared to 2011. The number of transactions reached 6,783,255 units with a total value of GEL 318,015 thousand in 2012 and 3,731,520 units with a total value of GEL 226,909 thousand. As for the first two months of 2013, the amount was 1,374,867 units with a total value of GEL 71,329 thousand.
There were 20,742 ATMs in Georgia in 2012, compared to 18,184 in 2011. The number of ATMs added to the network in January and February of 2013 was 3,908. POS terminals in merchant and service outlets reached 120,344 units in 2012, and 95,697 in 2011. The number of new POS terminals added in the first two months of 2013 was 22,353. As for the POS terminals in banks’ branches and service centers, their number reached 32,888 units in 2012, 30,918 units in 2011. The number of new units installed so far in 2013 is 4,997.
The number of transactions with payment cards consisted of 59,647,454 units, while their number in 2011 was 49,468,870. This year, there have been 10,246,196 transactions so far, of which the number of transactions within the Georgian economy with payment cards issued by residents was 9,494,764 units this year; last year 55,865,037 units and in 2011 – 46,848,021 units. By comparison, the number of transactions made within the Georgian economy with payment cards issued by non-residents was 751,432 units in 2013, 3,782,417 units in 2012 and 2,620,849 units in 2011.
The total value of transactions made with payment cards has reached GEL 1,283,505,000 in 2013, compared to GEL 8,102,748,000 in 2012, and GEL 7,150,055,000 – in 2011. Out of that amount, the value of transactions made within the Georgian economy with payment cards issued by residents amounted to GEL 1,138,079,000 in 2013, GEL 7,288,450,000 in 2012 and GEL 6,539,946,000 in 2011. The value of transactions made within the Georgian economy with payment cards issued by non-residents reached GEL 145,427,000 in 2013, GEL 814,297,000 in 2012 and GEL 610,109,000 in 2011.
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