UPDATE 1-Bradesco sees '09 card market up at least 16 pct

* Bradesco sees Brazil card market growing at least 16 pct

* Economic rebound, acceptance of cards to boost volumes

* Bradesco "absolutely calm" about card default rates (Adds further comments, card market details)

SAO PAULO, June 30 (Reuters) - Bradesco (BBDC4.SA)(BBD.N), Brazil's second-largest private sector bank, expects the country's credit card market to expand at least 16 percent this year, a top executive said on Tuesday.

Financial volumes on credit and debit card transactions, which reached 375 billion reais ($191 billion) in 2008, should benefit from an economic rebound that has spurred the use of cards.

Bradesco has a 22 percent share of the country's credit card market.

Brazil's association of credit card companies estimates growth of 15 percent and 16 percent this year, but the expansion "may be even larger" said Marcelo de Araujo Noronha, general director of Bradesco's card business.

Card usage in Brazil has grown at double-digit rates in recent years as companies and consumers shift to more electronic payment instead of cash and checks. Retailers and small shops have increasingly opted for card transactions as well, he said.

"The improvement in economic activity has also helped," Noronha said.

Bradesco bought Banco ibi for 1.4 billion reais on June 5, adding 30.6 million card users and betting on an expansion in consumer finance.

Despite an increase in delinquencies in Brazil's banking system, Bradesco is "absolutely calm" about default rates on cards, he added. Loan default rates rose in May to the highest since September 2000, the central bank said last week. ($1=1.966 reais) (Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr., Writing by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)