Turkey doubles contactless limit as transaction volumes soar amid coronavirus outbreak

Duvar English / Anadolu Agency

The Turkish Interbank Card Center (BKM) has increased the spending limit on the contactless transaction payments from 120 Turkish lira ($17.73) to 250 lira ($36.94), as transaction volumes soared in March.

The BKM announced on April 7 that the number of contactless payments made through credit and debit cards tripled in March, compared to the same month of last year, hitting 85.8 million transactions amid coronavirus outbreak.

Of these, the data showed, some 2.5 million contactless cards were used for the first time.

The increase in contactless transactions comes at a time when Turkey is battling with COVID-19, prompting it to implement various social distancing measures.

"Contactless payments peaked in the second week of March, especially when the social isolation started," the BKM said.

The number of cards in the country rose to 239 million as of the end of March, marking an increase of 9 percent year-on-year, the BKM said.

The volume of debit and credit card payments stood at 85.5 billion Turkish Liras (about $13.5 billion) in March, marking an increase of 9 percent compared to the same period last year, the center stated.

Payments by card increased the most in markets such as food (44 percent), electronic appliances, health and cosmetics (16 percent).

Airlines and accommodation sectors, meanwhile, saw a 42 percent decline in card payments.

Data showed that the total volume of online credit card payments in Turkey rose to 16.5 billion Turkish liras (around $2.6 billion) in March, marking an increase of 19 percent year-on-year.

"[Some] 3 million cards were used for the first time for online payments," the BKM said.