The number of payment cards in Lebanon (debit, credit, charge, and prepaid cards) fell by 5.31% (161,317 cards) during the first nine months of 2020 to 2,875,439 cards, down from 3,036,756 cards at year-end 2019. In detail, the number of debit cards rose by 34,765 YTD September 2020 to 1,888,809, while the number of credit cards plunged by 138,021 to 418,070, the number of charge cards dropped by 15,915 to 90,138 and that of prepaid cards falling by 42,146 to 478,422 cards.  This drop in the number of cards is mainly attributed to the caps on spending limits introduced by banks mainly on international transactions in the light of the liquidity squeeze in foreign currency which dissuaded card holders from renewing their cards or obtaining new ones.

In a related note, the banking sector’s ATM network witnessed a drop in the number of ATM machines, which fell to 1,915 machines by September 2020, down from 2,003 at end of 2019. The drop in ATM machines can be attributed to the closure of some branches as banks reduced activity amid the harsh economic environment. Mount Lebanon amassed the highest concentration of ATMs (698 ATMs <36.45%>), followed closely by Beirut and Suburbs (697 ATMs <36.40%>), North (201 ATMs <10.50%>), South (147 ATMs <7.68%>), Bekaa (140 ATMs <7.31%>), and Nabatieh (32 ATMs <1.67%>) regions.