The number of payment cards in Lebanon (debit, credit, charge, and prepaid cards) fell by 6.46% (183,173 cards) during the first ten months of 2021 to 2,650,528 cards, down from 2,833,701 cards at end of 2020. In detail, the number of debit cards dropped by 62,554 to 1,787,356, the number of credit cards plunged by 118,830 to 245,380, the number of charge cards fell by 11,892 to 69,703 and the number of prepaid cards increased by 10,103 to 548,089 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 6.51% in the first ten months of 2021 to 31,265 as a result of merchants’ preference for cash sales to overcome withdrawal limits 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 continued to shrink encompassing 1,749 machines by end of October 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 (647 ATMs <36.99%>), followed closely by Beirut and Suburbs (616 ATMs <35.22%>), the North (183 ATMs <10.46%>), South (133 ATMs <7.60%>), Bekaa (137 ATMs <7.83%>), and Nabatieh (33 ATMs <1.89%>) regions.