The Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) has just published its bulletin on payments in Tunisia during the first quarter of this year.
Compared with 31 December 2023, the number of electronic payment acceptance points at the end of March was 3,235 ATMs (+0.9%), 36,000 eftpos terminals (+2.1%) and 7.128 million bankcards (+1.1%).
Compared to the first quarter of 2002, the total number of bankcard transactions reached 37.3 million (+7.5%). Bankcards were used for 36% of payments and 64% of withdrawals.
The total value of these transactions amounted to 6.36 billion dinars (+9.7%), of which 21% were payments and 79% were withdrawals.
In addition, the volume of remote payment instruments – cheques, direct debits and bills of exchange – slowed down, while the number of transfers accelerated.
Regarding cheques, more than 6.12 million cheques (-3.4%) were issued in the first quarter of 2024 for a total amount of 30.9 billion dinars (+4.8%), with a bounce rate of about 1.47% in terms of number, i.e. 90 thousand cheques, and 2.37% in terms of value, i.e. 732.7 million dinars.
During the first three months of the year, more than 8.3 million transfers were made (-0.01%) for a value of 13.1 billion dinars (+7.7%), with a bounce rate of 0.12% in number and 0.10% in value.
