Rising to second place in 25 years is “an unbelievable success story,” Ayliffe said during a press conference in İstanbul on Wednesday celebrating the 25th anniversary of Visa’s entry into the Turkish credit card market. At the press conference, Ayliffe also discussed findings Visa Europe published in a report titled “The future of everyday payments in Europe Who cares?” Turkish companies that are cooperating with Visa are focusing on innovation, Ayliffe said, adding: “The innovative spirit is quite strong here. Turkey is Visa Europe’s most-developed country in terms of technology.”
Noting that advanced payment systems are being employed in Turkey, Ayliffe stated that consumers would soon be able to process payments using their mobile phones alone. As of the end of November, he said, the total number of Visa bank cards in Turkey had seen an annual increase of 12.3 percent, reaching 64 million. He also cited figures showing the hike in usage of these cards. As of the end of September, the use of bankcards had increased 46 percent over the first nine months of 2008, while the volume of the shopping done using Visa cards rose 22 percent to 45.7 billion euros.
Discussing the findings of “The future of everyday payments in Europe Who cares” report, Ayliffe said 80 percent of payments in Europe are still made in cash and that the sum of the direct and indirect costs of all payment methods is estimated to be nearly 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Using cash facilitates the expansion of the unregistered, economy, Ayliffe said, noting that governments all over the world were taking action to encourage the usage of cards in shopping. “If the utilization of electronic payment systems is increased by 15 percent, the overall size of the unregistered economy will fall by up to 8.6 percent in Europe,” he said, quoting the report’s findings. Additionally, he noted, a 1 percent hike in the use of electronic payments would contribute to a 0.5 percent increase in consumer spending.
Answering a question after his presentation, Ayliffe said the global economic crisis had caused a change in consumer behavior in terms of card usage. Europeans have grown more inclined to using debit cards rather than credit cards in their payments, Ayliffe said, adding that today nearly 75 percent of card payments are made using debit cards. Although the use of bankcards in shopping has risen considerably, the volume of transactions is falling, he added.
Visa Europe operates in Turkey in partnership with 24 banks, and its share in total consumer spending is 14 percent.
