Financial sector news

In 2024, Ukrainians continued to actively use cashless payments despite the challenging conditions of wartime and attacks on energy infrastructure. This is confirmed by statistical data on transactions with payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks and financial institutions, which are analyzed by the National Bank within the framework of overseeing payment infrastructure.

The Share of Cashless Transactions with Payment Cards Remains High

In 2024, the number of transactions using payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks and financial institutions amounted to 8.654.4 million, with a total value of 6,577.4 billion UAH. Of these, 91.8% by number and 90.1% by value were conducted in Ukraine.
The majority of payment card transactions in Ukraine were cashless. A total of 8,184.8 million cashless transactions were made in Ukraine and abroad, amounting to 4,243.5 billion UAH.
Thus, the share of cashless transactions by value was 64.5% of the total value of payment card transactions last year, and the share by number increased to 94.6%.
This positive trend indicates that Ukraine's payment infrastructure can ensure uninterrupted and sustainable service for cashless transactions with payment cards, contributing to a high level of trust in cashless payments among Ukrainians.

The Most Common Transactions – Cashless Payments in Retail Networks

An analysis of the distribution of cashless transactions with payment cards issued by Ukrainian institutions by their types shows that in 2024, the largest number of transactions by both count and value were related to payments in retail networks. These accounted for 73.4% by number and 46.8% by value (over 6 billion transactions worth almost 2 billion UAH).
Card-to-card transfers accounted for 31.1% by value (or 1,318.4 billion UAH), with their number being 8.2% of all cashless transactions.
Online payments for goods and services accounted for 13.6% by number and 14.7% by value of all cashless transactions with payment cards, totaling 622 billion UAH.

Average Transaction Amounts in Ukraine in 2024:

• Retail network: 330 UAH (325 UAH in 2023)
• Card-to-card transfers: 1,958 UAH (1,972 UAH)
• Online payments for goods and services: 561 UAH (490 UAH)

Expansion of Payment Infrastructure and Growth in Card Issuance

In 2024, the number of payment terminals in retail and service networks increased by 10.5% compared to 2023, reaching 496.6 thousand (97.5% of them are contactless terminals). This also exceeds the number of payment terminals at the end of 2021 by 16.4%. Thus, the terminal network in Ukraine has fully recovered from the losses of the first year of full-scale invasion and continues to expand.
The number of points of sale and service providers accepting payment cards, including in online networks, also grew by 12.8% compared to 2023, reaching 518.4 thousand (as of 01.01.2024 – 459.7 thousand).
The number of operating ATMs remained almost unchanged throughout 2024 (15.7 thousand).
At the same time, in the past year, the total number of payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks and financial institutions increased. As of 01.01.2025, it reached 132 million, which is 15% more than in 2023, partly due to the issuance of payment cards under government social support programs such as "National Cashback," "Winter eSupport," and "eBook."
The number of payment cards with monthly transactions also increased at the same pace. The number of active cards rose by 13% over the year to 58.8 million (44.5% of all issued payment cards).
Throughout 2024, the trend of previous years continued, with a growth in the number of active contactless payment cards. Their number in December 2024 increased by 14% compared to December 2023, reaching 35 million cards. In total, more than half (60%) of active payment cards were contactless.
Tokenized payment cards (NFC technology) also continued to be popular. In December 2024, their number increased by 33% compared to December 2023, reaching 16.5 million. Therefore, every fourth active payment card was tokenized.
As a result, about 95% of the number and value of cashless transactions in retail networks in 2024 were made using contactless payment technology and NFC technology.