Payment Card Market in Russia: Peculiarities and Prospects of Development

Currently, cashless payments using plastic cards are gaining ever more popularity. The article analyzes the dynamics of the main indicators of the payment card market development, characterizes its features, as well as the prospects for development, in particular, in investigates the dynamics of the number of settlement (debit) and credit cards issued by Russian credit institutions in 2012-2017; the dynamics of the number of credit institutions in Russia that issue and / or do acquiring of payment cards in 2012-2018. The article brings forth a classification of the main plastic cards types, gives their general characteristics, the structure of payment cards issued by credit institutions of the Russian Federation, the dynamics of issuing and the degree of their penetration into the Russian market. The authors conclude that the prospects for the development of the plastic cards market can be associated with an increase in penetration of payment cards into the Russian market of non-cash payments, or with departure from plastic cards and transition to biometric identification of customers for their cashless payments.