The number of payment cards in Lebanon (debit, credit, charge, and prepaid cards) fell by 2.79% (78,993 cards) during the first quarter of 2021 to 2,754,014 cards, down from 2,833,007 cards at year-end 2020. In detail, the number of debit cards dropped by 19,760 in Q1-2021 to 1,830,150, with the number of credit cards plunging by 37,102 to 327,108, the number of charge cards falling by 6,006 to 74,895 and the number of prepaid cards dropping by 16,125 to 521,861 cards. This drop in the number of cards is mainly attributed to restrictions on international transactions (except for fresh cash cards) introduced by banks in the light of the liquidity squeeze in foreign currency which dissuaded card holders from renewing their cards or obtaining new ones. In the same vein, the number of Points of Sales (POS) dropped by 2.67% in the first quarter of 2021 to 32,548 as a result of merchants’ preference for cash sales to overcome withdrawal restrictions imposed by banks not to mention the closure of a number of enterprises amid the prolonged economic depression.

In a related note, the banking sector’s ATM network witnessed a drop in the number of ATM machines, which fell to 1,835 machines by end of March 2021, down from 1,874 at end of 2020. The drop in ATM machines can be attributed to the closure of some branches to accommodate for the slow economic environment and banks’ efforts to trim operating expenses. Mount Lebanon amassed the highest concentration of ATMs (669 ATMs <36.46%>), followed closely by Beirut and Suburbs (662 ATMs <36.08%>), North (194 ATMs <10.57%>), South (142 ATMs <7.74%>), Bekaa (137 ATMs <7.47%>), and Nabatieh (31 ATMs <1.69%>) regions.