Digital Payments Added 574 Billion TL to Turkey's Economy in 2025

Payment Ecosystem According to June 2025 data, Turkey has 319 million bank cards, including 142 million credit cards and 177 million prepaid cards.
Turkey became the largest market in Europe, surpassing Spain.
Card payments reached 24.1 trillion TL in 2025.
Economic Contributions Mastercard’s report outlines three main economic impacts of digital payments: increased tax revenue from reduced informal activity, support for household consumption, and tourism revenue through service exports.
Household Consumption Digital payments contributed about 1.5 trillion TL to household consumption in 2025.
Travel (546 billion TL) and restaurants (427 billion TL) were the highest contributors, followed by furniture, electronics, clothing, and accommodation.
Card payments accounted for 54% of household payments with individual cards, rising to 69% when including commercial cards.
Tourism Revenue Tourism revenue grew from $7.6 billion in 2000 to nearly $65 billion in 2025.
The share of card payments in tourism revenue increased from 15% to 38%.
Digital payments added 388 billion TL (about $9.8 billion) to tourism revenue.
Cost of Cash Usage In 2025, the direct cost of printing banknotes to the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (TCMB) was 4.4 billion TL, while the cost of cash circulation to banks exceeded 65 billion TL.
Corporate cash operating costs were 34 billion TL, and the total cost passed on to consumers was 8.1 billion TL.
Widespread digital payments can reduce these costs and increase efficiency.
Tax Revenue Digital payments contributed 574 billion TL to VAT, excise tax, corporate tax, and income tax in 2025.
This amount represents about 5% of Turkey’s total tax revenue.
The reduction in informal activity was especially pronounced among micro, small, and medium‑sized enterprises, which accounted for roughly 40% of total card payments.