“Romanians want to pay with their smartphones. Since 60% to 70% of the purchases are made with contactless payments, it is obvious this has become the de facto payment method in Romania. It took a long while to get there since 2008 when we launched the contactless technology until 2017,” Cosmin Vladimirescu, country manager of Mastercard for Romania and the Republic of Moldova, said during a meeting with the media.
“Those were ten years of massive investments from us, banks, merchants. Once we’ve gotten used to this type of payment, moving to phones is extremely simple, natural. People already have smartphones, they are already making contactless payments, the acceptance infrastructure is there.”
Mastercard and Maestro cards were used for 100 million contactless payments in Romania last year, 30 times more than in 2015.
Only Banca Transilvania, one of the leading banks on the market, has launched an app that enables smartphone payments, but the number of banks offering the option will increase, Vladimirescu says.
“Several banks are working on the issue, I know there are concerted efforts, I expect to see other digital wallet apps from banks. The moment phone payments will account for 10% of the market very much depends on when the other banks will offer such solutions.”
By 2020, people will no longer need cash, and will not be touching their wallets because they will no longer need it, the Mastercard official said, adding people will be able to pay for coffee or public transportation using their smartwatches, pay for the gas by scanning a QR code without leaving the car and split the bill on a restaurant meal with friends using an instant payment app.
The transition towards payments by phone or other wearable gadgets could be made faster if payment solutions from Apple and Samsung become available in Romania. Asked when that might happen, Cosmin Vladimirescu said many of the requirements have already been met.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)