Luxembourg and the United Kingdom are the only countries with a larger number of cards per capita.
According to the latest data collected and processed at the end of March 2016, Croatia had 8.8 million debit and credit cards, an increase of almost 2 percent compared to the previous year. The share of the chip (smart) cards in the total number of cards is 94 percent, reports Lider on July 28, 2016.
The figures from the Croatian Chamber of Economy show that there are 27 banks represented in Croatia, 25 of which offer credit card services. Analysis of the total number of credit cards, and there were 1.8 million of them at the end of March, shows that 49 percent are credit cards issued by the banks, while 51 percent are issued by credit card companies.
The total value of credit card transactions that were done in the country and abroad with the cards issued by the Croatian banks and credit card companies in the first quarter of 2016 amounted to 29.6 billion kuna, which is 4.8 percent more than during the same period last year, while the number of transactions was 84.2 million, which represents an increase of 4.9 percent.
A more significant growth has been recorded when it comes to transactions that have been realized in Croatia by foreigners: the total value of transactions performed by foreigners increased by 17.6 percent, while the number of transactions jumped 24 percent compared to the first quarter. Meanwhile, at the end of March 2016, Croatia had 4,440 ATMs, and compared to the end of March 2015 their number went up almost 4 percent.
If we look at the data for other EU members, the average number of cards per capita in late 2014 was 1.5 cards, while at the same time Croatia had two cards per capita. Luxembourg and the United Kingdom are the only countries with a larger number of cards per capita. Romania found itself at the bottom of the list with 0.7 cards per capita.
