Payments at POS-es account for almost 20% of the card payments made in the first quarter. ATM withdrawals continue to account for the bulk of transactions, even though they have been increasing at a slower rate than payments at merchants. Payments have gone up 2.5 times since 2008, while cash withdrawals by 80%.
The low share of payments compared with cash withdrawals is an effect of the poor development of the economy, of the low purchasing power and of the insufficiently developed POS network. Banks had 137,000 POS-es at the end of March, 8% more than in the year-ago period.
Cardholders performed 57 million cash withdrawal operations from ATMs in January-March, which means two transactions per month for each of the 11 million active cards. The average transaction is about RON500.
The number of POS transactions stood at 57 million, as well, but the average value of a payment was less than RON140. The average value of a card payment in store has been dwindling in the past few years, which shows people have started to use their cards for small daily purchases. Still, the average transaction value remains higher than the European average.
One thing that influences the ratio of cash withdrawals and card payments at merchants is the penetration of banking services among consumers, a department where Romania is lagging behind the European countries. Banking assets account for only 60% of the Gross Domestic Product.
Statistically speaking, there is one card per every two people in Romania, but actually more than half of the Romanians do not have a card, because many people have two or even more.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)