The number of VISA credit cards in Russia reached around 16 million by the end of 2004, up from 9.4 million cards one year earlier

The number of VISA credit cards in Russia reached around 16 million by the end of 2004, up from 9.4 million cards one year earlier, head of the VISA offices in Russia Lou Naumovsky told reporters on Tuesday. The number of cards issued by VISA member-banks was 500,000, and that could increase to 3-5 million by the end of this year, Naumovsky said. The development forecasts are quite upbeat, he said. Before 2005 ends, Naumovsky said, there could be issued nearly 1.5 million VISA cards containing electronic chips in Russia. more than 800,000 of these, able to be used at roughly 25,000 POS terminals, have already been issued by Russian banks involved in the VISA system. VISA has already certified eighteen Russian banks to issue these cards and twelve for acquiring.