Turkey’s Interbank Card Center has revealed that the Turks’ love for online shopping grew in 2012, with online credit card transaction rising 34%, compared to the previous year. This brings the total value of online credit card transactions to $17.4 billion.
The report also showed that credit and debit card issuing continued to grow in 2012. Credit cards issued by banks grew by six percent and debit cards by eleven percent.
Speaking to the Anadolu Agency, Director General Soner Canko of Interbank Card Centre said that, “Accepting cards in trade became widespread. People used to be more cautious about it. We closed 2011 with 2 million POS (Point of Sale) machines however I can say that in 2012, we added 100,000 more of the devices. With the advancing technology and cooperation of banks, a POS device can serve more than one bank.”
The Director General also spoke on the country’s plan to follow the lead of Scandinavian countries and move towards a cashless society. In a previous occasion, Canko explained: “By the year 2023, 100th anniversary of Turkish Republic, Turkey aims to be the first country in the world where all the transactions are executed through payment systems. BKM’s vision is ‘To lead the transition to a cashless society in the payments industry, create and operate the necessary platforms for this transition in everywhere required by the industry’”.
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