“Payments by card increased 2.5 times during the crisis. At the end of September, we had EUR7.5 billion in cash withdrawn from ATMs, up 6.5%, and EUR1.8 billion payments by card, up 16%,” Catalin Cretu told ZF Live.
In his opinion, the ATM network is sufficiently developed at this moment, but the number of POS-es on the market needs to rise, as this would support the use of cards in the detriment of cash.
“Now, there are 130,000 POS-es in Romania. By the number of POS-es per 1,000 inhabitants, we rank very low among other countries. Around 6-7 terminals per 1,000 inhabitants, even behind Bulgaria.
Beyond the fees they pay for POS-es, retailers stand to gain from this form of payment, which can drive receipts up by 5-7%. Statistically, the average payment by card is higher than the cash one, revolving around EUR33.
The ratio between cash withdrawals and payment transactions reached 1/1 in summer, while several years ago this was highly unbalanced. “There is a culture of cash in Romania. Moreover, many Romanians do not have a purchasing power that tops the costs they have to take on. In this context, they make some calculations and withdraw all the money to cover their obligations,” explained Visa manager.
Catalin Cretu expects 50% of payments to be operated from a mobile device by 2020, either a phone, bracelet or other instrument.
As regards the near future, Visa Romania will launch a type of electronic bracelets that will allow for the acquisition of products from concert spaces. “Beside this electronic bracelet, we also plan to launch an electronic wallet. E-commerce is booming and we want to reduce the whole experience to just three clicks. The electronic wallet will include all the cards issued on the name of a user,” explained Catalin Cretu.
Romania lags way behind other states in terms of the online payment of taxes and the field needs to develop rapidly in the upcoming years. According to Visa subregional manager, payments to the state should be among the top 5 online payments, from the top 10 at present.
“Our targets for 2015 envisage a rising flow of online payments to the state, the introduction of payments by card to all utilities companies and the launch of the electronic meal ticket,” said Catalin Cretu.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)