Bulgaria Expands Debit Cards by 1 Million

The debit cards issued by Bulgaria's largest card operator BORIKA has increased by more than 1.06 million in 2003 y/y reaching the impressive number of 3.5 million, according to annual statistical results. The ATMs have spread from 1,222 to 1,753 locations by the end of 2004, while POS terminals have nearly doubled being now 6,837. For just a year the number of international debit cards dubbed MAESTRO has reached 1.6 million, VISA cards expanded to 19,460 and MASTERCARD numbers nowadays 36,590. BORIKA announced that it had serviced a total of 60.5 million transactions over last year. Payments via the online ePay.bg system stand at the cost of BGN 11.32 M from 319,058 transactions, statistical data showed.