The volume of payments by debit and credit cards in the first quarter of 2009 went down by 20% from Q4, to 3bn RON (0.7bn euros), after having posted significant increases in the previous quarters.
Against Q1, 2008, the value of payments by card rose by 18%. Payments by card are mainly in form by POS transactions and by the payment of bills at ATMs. Purchases, namely POS transactions, in Q1 totalled 1.7bn RON (0.4bn euros), down 23% from Q4, 2008, and 29% lower from Q1, 2008.
"In the first two months of this year, we noticed a drop in POS traded volumes. Traditionally, there were slumps at the beginning of the year, but in 2009 the declines were bigger. Whilst we normally returned to volumes traded in autumn months, this year we returned to last summer's level. What needs to be specified, though, is that it is not the number of transactions that shrank, but their average value," comments Gabriela Nistor, retail executive of Banca Transilvania.
She adds that a rally was registered in March and April, amid the bigger purchases ahead of Easter holidays.
According to the NBR data, the number of payments by cards at an aggregate level registered a 5% decline in Q1, 2009 from Q4, 2008. Against Q1, 2008, the total number of payments by card rose by 20%.
At the same time, the total value of cash withdrawals from ATMs in Q1 fell by 17% from last year and by 14% from Q4, 2008. Total sums withdrawn from ATMs in Q1 reached 16.5bn RON (3.87bn euros).
Taking into account the trend in the number of transactions related to the withdrawal of money from ATMs and the number of payments with retailers, a tendency of the population making a rising number of payments directly in stores is visible. However, cash withdrawal transactions still account for a huge volume compared to payments to retailers.
Banking system players in the first three months continued to expand the infrastructure of payments means. The number of ATMs in the banking system reached 9,376 units, from 9,246 in late 2008 and 7,936 in March 2008. At the same time, the number of POS terminals advanced to 94.7 millions, from 90.6 millions in late 2008 and over 80 millions in March 2008.
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