Annual figure of active credit cards in Italy 2010-2020

The number of active credit cards in Italy fluctuated significantly from 2010 to 2020. After reaching the lowest value in 2014 (roughly 12.3 million), the number of active credit cards in the country increased steadily, peaking at 15.4 million in 2019. The majority of these are personal credit cards, while business/corporate credit cards represent less than ten percent of the total.

Debit cards

Whilst the number of credit cards fluctuated over the years, debit cards appeared to have become more popular, debit cards appear to be more and more popular. Data show that the number of active debit cards in Italy grew steadily during the last decade. In 2019, there were 56 million debit cards in Italy, compared to 37.4 million in 2010. Similarly, the number of transactions finalized with debit cards also increased, in this case more than twofold.

POS terminals

The growing number of payment cards went hand in hand with the increase in number of point-of-sale (POS) terminals. The number of POS terminals grew at a significant pace since 2009, when there were approximately 1.5 million. The spread of payment cards and POS terminals led to an increase in the number of card payments and an overall increasing popularity of cashless solutions.