Figures released by Banque du Liban show that the number of payment cards issued in Lebanon reached 2,686,275 cards at the end of June 2018, constituting an increase of 2% from end-2017 and of 5% from the end of June 2017. Cards held by residents accounted for 96.6% of total cards issued in Lebanon at end-June 2018. The distribution of payment cards by type shows that debit cards with residents reached 1,521,669 and accounted for 56.6% of the total, followed by credit cards with residents at 553,901 (20.6%), prepaid cards with residents at 428,106 (15.9%), charge cards with residents at 91,151 (3.4%), debit cards held by non-residents at 61,504 (2.3%), credit cards with non-residents at 21,208 (0.8%), charge cards held by non-residents at 7,283 (0.3%) and prepaid cards with non-residents at 1,453 (0.1%). 

Further, the aggregate number of points-of-sales accepting payment cards reached 43,810 at the end of June 2018, constituting an increase of 3.1% from end-2017 and a rise of 8.8% year-on-year. As a result, there were 4.2 points-of-sales per square kilometer in Lebanon at the end of June 2018.