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100 Million Plastic Bank Cards in Russia
The number of bank cards in Russia increased 38.4 percent in 2007 and total over 100 million, according to the draft annual report of the Central Bank of Russia. One of the main factors in their spread has been their distribution through the mail system. That method is becoming more prevalent very year. VTB 24 has sent of 100,000 cards, for example, and Ursa Bank has sent out 500,000. Sberbank will begin using the mail for that purpose in June.
The number of credit cards in Russia increased by 58 percent to 8.9 million last year. That is the first year the Central Bank has included information about them in its report. The amount of money Russians spent on credit was not revealed. Home Credit and Finance Bank set that amount at 178 billion rubles, or 15 percent more than in 2006. Russians have borrowed a total of 3.19 trillion rubles from banks. Thus every Russian owes an average of 22,000 rubles.
www.kommersant.com
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Photo: Ivan Grankin