Card transactions soared 80 pct year-on-year over Christmas

The use of debit and credit cards over the festive season rose to record levels, illustrating the growing prevalence of online transactions in everyday life - as well as the fragility of the system, which suffered significant glitches.

According to bank data for the week leading up to Christmas (December 18-24), card transactions showed an 80 percent increase from the same period in 2016 and a 60 percent rise from the previous week (December 11-17).

The increase in plastic money payments this Christmas comes on top of a significant rise in 2016 and is attributed to a great extent to the forced adjustment of Greek consumers to the conditions created by capital controls imposed by the government two-and-a-half years ago.

The spike in card transactions combined with certain technical failures resulted in serious malfunctions, particularly with cards issued by the...