Overall, the number of card payments to merchants rose six-fold faster than the number of cash withdrawals.
According to Visa Europe’s general manager for Romania, Croatia, Malta and Slovenia, Catalin Cretu, over two thirds of Visa card payments are below RON100, showing that Romanians use to pay by card daily, even small amounts.
“From this point of view, contactless represents the near future for electronic payments in Romania as it makes low value payments much easier, while the 50-fold growth in the value of such transactions in 2015 is only the beginning for the success of this technology,” Cretu said.
In 2015, the number of Visa cards issued in Romania slightly rose to 7.4 million, in line with the evolution of the debit card portfolio. The number of POS debit card payments rose by 22.2%, while the value of payments increased by 19.9%.
Visa issued 10% more cards for companies in 2015, which triggered the increase of POS payments (+22.3% as number of transactions; +18.7% as value of payment).