Visa Surpasses Mastercard in Card Count in Ukraine
As of April 1, 2025, there were 69.22 million Visa cards in Ukraine compared to 67.75 million Mastercard cards.
This information is provided by the NBU, as reported by "Interfax-Ukraine".
This marks the first time in a long while that Visa has surpassed its competitor in terms of total cards in circulation.
In the first quarter, Visa increased its base by 5.62 million cards, or 8.8%, while Mastercard lost 0.2 million cards (0.3%). Consequently, Visa's market share rose to 50.4%, while Mastercard's share fell to 49.3%.
However, in terms of active cards, Mastercard still retains the lead — 29.94 million compared to Visa's 29.32 million. A year ago, Mastercard's advantage was significantly larger — 29.85 million versus 22.65 million.
In terms of cashless transaction volumes, Visa surpassed Mastercard at the end of 2024. In March 2025, Visa processed 409 million transactions amounting to 198 billion UAH, while Mastercard handled 346 million transactions worth 183.9 billion UAH. Nevertheless, for cash withdrawal operations, Mastercard remains ahead — 21 million transactions for 114.1 billion UAH compared to Visa's 17 million for 90.9 billion UAH.
One reason for Visa's growth may be the transition of monobank clients to this system. Universal Bank, which services monobank, previously announced a switch from Mastercard to Visa for most of its clients.
