RBC-Rating analysts did a research on Russia’s plastic card market in the first half of 2007, with data provided by 109 Russian banks. Five banks on the Top 25 card-issuing banks list are actually based in Sverdlovsk Region. SKB-Bank was rated 25th in the All-Russian ranking and 1st in the Mid-Urals one. The number of cards issued by the bank amounted to 350,640 by July 1, 2007.

Central Bank of Russia reports 727 banks that deal in issuance and acquiring have been registered in Russia by July 2007; these figures cover 679 issuers and 646 acquirers. In the meantime, Moscow (including Moscow Region) and Saint Petersburg have been reported to be the regions with the greatest numbers of plastic cards, with the Top 5 list completed by the regions of Ural Federal District. Most of the bank cards that were issued in Ural Federal District belong to people living in Sverdlovsk Region; the number of cards comes to 2.674 million, which is Russia’s 3d largest amount of cards per region.