The conference called SmartCard2011, which started on Monday in the northern coastal resort of Opatija and will end on 28 September, was organised by the Rijeka-based Case company with help of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), the science ministry and Zagrebacka Banka.
The number of smart cards rose by 11.2 per cent to some 7.5 million in June this year, making up 83 per cent of the total number of integrated circuit cards. The rest, that is some 1.5 million cards, were magnetic stripe cards (magstripes).
Mirjana Kovacic and Vanja Dominovic of the HGK presented the findings of a survey on the Croatian card market.
In the first six months of 2011, debit cards made up 78.7 per cent of the total number of cards, credit cards accounted for 10.3 per cent and the rest was issued by card issuing companies.
The value of card transactions came to HRK 54.1 billion, or 8 per cent up year on year. In H1 2011, there were a total of 136.4 million card transactions, which was an increase of 10.5 per cent.
The value of a total of 4.9 million card transactions made by foreigners in Croatia was 3.5 billion kuna, or 16.6 per cent more year on year.
The number of automated teller machines (ATM) increased by 1.3 per cent to 3,836 in H1 2011, when 50.7 million transactions in the value of HRK 34.3 billion were made through ATMs.
The number of plastic cards has quadrupled since 2000, and the number of cash machines has gone up five times.