Moldovans’ incomes on cards in 2020 were higher than those in cash. Even if the bank cards are used as a means for withdrawing money from ATMs for current costs, card payments follow an upward trend. The online market in Moldova was absent ten years ago, but now it became significant. During many years, the card payments came to 200-300 million lei a year, but now the payments come to 9 billion lei, said Veaceslav Ioniță, expert in economic policies at the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul”, IPN reports.
In an edition of his program “Economic analyses with Veaceslav Ioniță”, the expert said the bank cards in the Republic of Moldova were introduced 25 years ago. Then the people were not aware of the existence of cards, but now almost everyone has a bank card. In 2020, for the first time the people’s incomes obtained on card were higher than those in cash – 72bn lei as opposed to 68bn lei.
According to the economist, ten years ago 97% of the Moldovans, when they received the money on card, went immediately to the ATM to withdraw it and use it in cash. Last year, almost each fourth person paid by card. Of the 70bn lei received on card, 54bn lei was withdrawn to cash in 2020. This is about 75% of the total. The previous years the sum withdrawn to cash rose by 6-7 billion lei, but last year it increased by over 1 billion lei.
“For the first time, we witnessed the situation when the bank cards market grew due to card payments, not to cash withdrawals,” stated Veaceslav Ioniță.
In 2020, the Moldovans made card payments totaling 21.8 billion lei - 16.3 billion lei in the country, while 5.5 billion lei abroad. 2020 was the first year when card payments declined in value owing to the travel restrictions imposed due to the pandemic. Until 2016, card payments made abroad were larger in value than those made in the country. Now things changed and the payments made by Moldovans in the country are several times larger than those made abroad.
For the first time in 2020, online payments made inside Moldova exceeded the online payments made outside the country by 1 billion lei. Last year, the online payments in Moldova rose by over 60%.
