The Banking Executive Magazine - August Issue 2022

Online Purchases KUWAIT MAKES 392.94MLN ONLINE PURCHASES, WITHDRAWALS, PAYMENTS IN FIRST 6 MONTHS OF ’22 Official data shows that citizens and residents made about 392.94 million payments and withdrew cash during the first 6 months of 2022, an in- crease of 37.5%, including 107.14 million transactions, compared to the same period of 2021, during which the number of payments and with- drawals of funds were about 285.8 million. From January to the end of June 2022, the cash transactions made through ATMs accounted for 11% of the total transactions carried out by citizens and residents, while online payments were about 28%. Of the total transactions during the same pe- riod, there were direct payments through points of sale (PoS) with bank cards accounting for about 61% of the total transactions. In detail, credit card payments through points of sale (direct pur- chase) accounted for 61% of the total payments during the period from Jan- uary to the end of June 2022, includ- ing about 240 million direct pur- chases, including 226.9 million pur- chases within Kuwait, and 13.13 million credit card purchases through points of sale abroad. From January to the end of March 2022, spending transactions through points of sale accounted for 118.748 million, including 112.1 million in- side Kuwait and 6.64 million abroad, while from April to the end of June 2022, the number of transactions in- creased to 121.32 million direct pur- chases, including, 114.8 million operations inside Kuwait and 6.49 million operations abroad. In com- parison on an annual basis, the num- ber of purchases through points of sale by citizens and residents during the first half of 2022 increased by 48%, with a value of 77.74 million purchases, compared to 162.3 mil- lion transactions they made during the same period in 2021. The number of transactions on ATMs (cash) accounted for about 11% of the transactions of citizens and resi- dents with their bank cards, with a rate of 43.12 million transactions out of 392.94 million transactions they made during the period from January to the end of June 2022, and cash withdrawals from inside Kuwait ac- counted for About 41.74 million transactions were made, while with- drawals through ATMs outside Kuwait amounted to 1.38 million withdrawals in 6 months. The data showed that the number of cash transactions decreased during the second quarter of 2022, reaching 21.66 million transactions from Jan- uary to the end of March 2022, in- cluding 20.94 million transactions inside Kuwait and 726,000 transac- tions abroad, while the number of transactions decreased during the pe- riod from April to The end of June 2022 reached 21.46 million transac- tions, including 20.8 transactions in- side Kuwait and 655 thousand transactions abroad. the BANKING EXECUTIVE 34 ISSUE 164 AUGUST 2022