Russians still prefer cash despite growing bank card market.

(From Agence France Presse)

Bank card use in Russia has skyrocketed in the past year, but analysts here say that is not necessarily a sign that Russians have been able to wean themselves from the security offered by hard cash.

State-owned Sberbank, Russia's largest bank in which two-thirds of the country's population keep private accounts, issued 57 percent more bank cards over the past 12 months, reaching some five million people.

There are some 15 million cards currently circlating in Russia and half of them are international Visa or Mastercards, according to Andrew Keeley, an analyst with the Renaissance Capital investment bank.

"Banks issued Visa cards with a frantic speed" over the past year, said Brian Huckett, deputy head of Visa International's development department.

The number of Visa cards issued in Russia in 2002 doubled on the year before, reaching 5.1 million cards.

But for a country with a population of 145 million "this is still just a drop in the ocean," noted Maxim Buylov, a specialist on the issue for respected business daily Kommersant.