30 January, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. The share of cashless payments using bank plastic cards in the retail turnover of the Vitebsk region for 2011 increased from 7.8% to 9.6%, the main department of the National Bank for the Vitebsk region informed a BELTA correspondent. The share of cashless transactions in the total volume of card transactions is also increasing. If at the beginning of the current year they accounted for 12%, then according to data as of January 1, 2012, it was 15.5%. As noted by the main department, the number of terminals for servicing bank plastic cards continues to grow at the fastest pace in trade and service facilities. If since the beginning of the year the number of terminals as a whole has grown by 24% and amounted to more than 8 thousand, then in trade and service facilities their number has increased by 30% - from 4.3 thousand to 5.6 thousand. According to data as of the beginning of 2012, there are almost 1.2 million bank plastic cards in circulation among the region's residents. In fact, there are 950 plastic cards per 1,000 residents, while as of January 1, 2011, there were 886. The Main Department of the National Bank notes that the growth of infrastructure outpaces the growth in the number of plastic cards: if the issuance of bank plastic cards has increased by 6.6% since the beginning of the year, then the number of terminals has increased by 24.4%, and ATMs by 10.5%. -0-

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