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2023

The largest Russian banks occupied 28% of the card payments market in Europe

According to the Nilson Report, published on June 20, 2024, the largest Russian banks occupied 28% of the card payments market in Europe, which indicates a significant increase in their share in this market. In 2023, five leading Russian banks conducted more than 55 billion transactions to pay for purchases, which is 27.9% of the total number of non-cash payments in Europe.

The leader among Russian banks was Sberbank, which made 47 billion card payments, which is 11% more compared to 2022. Sberbank took the position of the largest acquirer in Europe for the eighth time, significantly ahead of its closest competitors - the British company Worldpay and the Italian Nexi Payments, which processed 12.27 billion and 10.5 billion transactions, respectively. According to RBC, Sberbank exceeded their indicators by four times.

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Freepik

Other large Russian banks also showed significant results: Alfa-Bank processed 2.24 billion payments, VTB - 2.18 billion, T-Bank (formerly Tinkoff) - 1.93 billion, and Gazprombank - 1.65 billion transactions. The statistics also mention the Russian Standard and Promsvyazbank, whose indicators were lower than those of the first five banks.

National Payment Systems cards accounted for 33.8% of all card transactions in Europe, according to the Nilson Report. Over the year, the number of payments on them increased by 31%, while on cards of international payment systems Visa and Mastercard, the growth was only 9%. National cards include the Russian Mir, Turkish Troy, Norwegian BankAxept, French Cartes Bancaires and German Dankort.

Despite the departure of international payment systems Visa and Mastercard from Russia in March 2022, Russian banks were able to maintain and even increase their share in the European market. This became possible thanks to the active use of the national payment system Mir and the Chinese UnionPay, although the latter's share in the Russian market remains insignificant.^[1]

Dynamics and structure of bank deposits

Trillions of euros

2022: Number of millionaire bankers up 41.5%

On January 19, 2023, the European Banking Supervision Service (EBA) published a report stating that the number of millionaire bankers in Europe has reached an all-time high. Read more here.

2020: Due to the development of the fintech industry, the number of banks in Europe has decreased by 30% since 2008

According to data compiled by Finanso.se analysts, the number of European banks decreased to 5,963 as of January 2020, which is 30% lower than in 2008. Statistics show that over the past twelve years, about 2,600 banks and credit institutions in Europe have been closed in large part due to the rapid development of financial technology (fintech).

In 2008, there were 8,525 credit institutions in the EU, according to a review by the European Banking Federation. The 2008 financial crisis triggered a downward trend in banking and credit institutions that has continued ever since. By the end of 2016, the number of European credit institutions fell to 6,596, that is, it became almost 2,000 less than in 2008.

The number of banks in Europe continues to decline

Data for 2020 showed that one in four credit institutions disappeared after the financial crisis. Moreover, statistics show that over the past twelve years, the number of bank branches has decreased by almost 65,000, that is, it has become 27% less than in 2008. All this reflects the growing use of online services and mobile banking in EU countries.

In 2019, the decline was 2.7% less than in recent years, and was most noticeable in, Germany, Italy Austria and. Ireland However, 2020 data shows that Germany is still home to 25% of all credit institutions in Europe. Poland took second place in the list - it has 627 banks.

The German banking system consists of private banks, state-owned banks and member credit unions. As of January 2020, there were 1,531 active banks in Germany, that is, almost a thousand more than in any other European country. The largest of these is Deutsche Bank, with assets of around €1.3tn.^[2]

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