They accounted for 18% of total transactions with cards issued by local banks compared with less than 15% four years ago, according to Romania’s central bank data.
Cash withdrawals accounted for the bulk of the card transactions again, and amounted to more than RON79 billion (EUR17 billion) in the first nine months because of the more aggressive promotion by banks of this payment method and to the mushrooming of online stores.
The total volume of payments made with the more than 13 million cards in circulation in Romania was almost RON96 billion (EUR21 billion) in the first nine months, up 11% on the year-ago period. The payments at merchants and online saw the fastest growth pace, however, about 20%.
The increase in transactions at merchants comes after bankers have expanded their card acceptance networks and the number of POS-es installed at retailers has gone up 50% in the last four years. More than 125,000 POS-es were active at the end of September, after over 1,500 had been installed in the three months before that.
The number of ATMs continued to decline and reached 10,900 units in September, continuing a trend seen in the previous quarters and caused by the closing of bank branches and offices. (EUR1=RON4.5376)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)