1.2 million bank cards; MVR 17.9b transactions, MMA says
According to MMA statistics, in 2022 alone, 45.7 million transactions had been made using credit, debit and prepaid cards.
By
Aishath Fareeha Abdulla
The number of cards issued by banks in Maldives has reached 1.2 million, the central bank Maldives said.
According to the payments bulletin issued by the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), 64% of the 1.2 million cards issued till last year were debit cards.
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4% is credit cards
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36% are prepaid cards
The number of active or in-use cards issued by banks accounted for 74% of the total number of cards issued.
According to the MMA report, debit cards are the most commonly used financial transactions in Maldives. Accordingly
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By 2022, 750,000 debit cards have been issued
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43.5 million transactions were made using debit cards, equivalent to MVR 16.8 billion
The report notes that Visa, Master and AmEx are the most widely used cards in Maldives. Details are:
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45% use Visa cards: 48% of debit card users; 64% of credit card users and 0.03% of pre-paid card users
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23% use Amex: 22% of debit card users; 28% of credit card users
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20% use MasterCard: 24% of debit card users; 8% of credit card users and 99.97% of prepaid card users
The MMA said cards are the most commonly used form of currency transactions in Maldives. In 2022, 45.7 million transactions had been made using credit/debit/prepaid cards.
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That totals MVR 17.9 billion
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This is a 62% increase in the amount of money from 2019; 66% increase in transaction volume
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86% of card transactions were done through POS.
