Page 30 - BKT Annual Report 2023 EN

30 BANKA KOMBËTARE TREGTARE

CARDS
& PAYMENTS

During 2023 BKT has successfully held the market leader position in terms of cards payment and pos
acceptance. Acquiring business has developed and grown beyond all expectations by reaching more than
50% of the market both in terms of POS terminal number and volume. Total POS volume had a significant
growth by reaching a total of 312 million euro, 44% increase compared with last year figures. The pos terminal
number exceeded 9,500 all over Albania sustaining the number 1 position in the market. Same significant
growth occurred on Debit card side as the trend of using debit card product not only for cash transactions but
also for shopping online and offline shifted significantly. Meanwhile, BKT has maintained a leading position in
the credit card market overall.

In terms of new developments and improvements, pilot phase endowment of Pre-Personalized Debit card is a
significant project becoming first in Albanian market. This new flow is closely related with the Debit Card delivery
time and reducing the issuance and delivery of cards together with account opening to a couple of minutes.
Also together with Spar markets, smart Kiosks have been launched and welcomed with great appreciation by
the clients where customers can perform their supermarket purchases by themselves and without cash. An
important real-life step for cashless society aim.

After the introduction of SmartPay feature which enables customers to receive and send money using QR
code and be able use it on pos payments, the expansion has continued in 2023 with a quite good pace almost
exceeding 2,500 terminals in the current fleet of POS is enabled to accept QR on POS. The number of QR on
POS payment is continually improving and there is a well-organized plan about its expansion and promotion.