Figures released by Banque du Liban show that the number of payment cards issued in Lebanon reached 2,633,459 cards at the end of 2017, constituting an increase of 0.9% from end-September 2017 and a decrease of 4.7% from the end of 2016. Cards held by residents accounted for 96.6% of total cards issued in Lebanon at end-2017. The distribution of payment cards by type shows that debit cards with residents reached 1,477,776 and accounted for 56.1% of the total, followed by credit cards with residents at 549,743 (20.9%), prepaid cards with residents at 424,151 (16.1%), charge cards with residents at 91,604 (3.5%), debit cards held by non-residents at 59,857 (2.3%), credit cards with non-residents at 21,623 (0.8%), charge cards held by non-residents at 7,207 (0.3%) and prepaid cards with non-residents at 1,498 (0.1%).

Further, the aggregate number of points-of-sales accepting payment cards reached 42,506 at the end of 2017, constituting an increase of 2% from end-September 2017 and a rise of 10% from end-2016. As a result, there were 4.1 points-of-sales per square kilometer in Lebanon at the end of 2017.

In parallel, the number of ATMs across Lebanon totaled 1,902 at the end of 2017, constituting an increase of 1.2% from 1,880 at end-September 2017 and a growth of 6.1% from 1,793 at the end of 2016.