Twenty years after the putting of the first bank card into circulation in Moldova, the volume of payments made by card rose to 15.6 billion lei. More than half of these payments were made in 2016 and 2017. The statistics were presented by economist of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Veaceslav Ionita in the program “15 minutes of economic realism.
The expert said the card at the initial stage was used only for withdrawing cash from ATMs - 98% of the operation at that time. Instead of collecting the salary from the accountant’s office, employees went to the cash machine to withdraw the salary and traditionally paid cash for purchases. However, during the past three years the card payments have risen by 50% a year.
Thus, the card payments in 2015 totaled 2.3 billion lei, in 2016 – 3.3 billion lei, while in 2017 – close to 5 billion lei. “This is not too much, but the volume of payments made by card almost doubled,” stated the expert.
According to Veaceslav Ionita, the rise in card payments was due to several reasons. The liberalization of the visa regime led to more intense travel in Europe, where the Moldovans learned that it is very easy to pay by card. The number of card operations will increase during the next few years, but the rise is yet modest compared with the situation in the EU member states. To reach the European average, the card payments should increase in number five times.
The expert noted that when paying by card, the people do not have to wait for hours to pay for services and goods. The banks and the state also enjoy benefits. The underground economy diminishes as the state can see all the performed transactions. Apparently, only the business entities are disadvantaged as they pay commission of 1.5%-2.5% and the National Bank should introduce norms to regulate the collection of commission by banks as the banks are in a competitive advantage against business entities.
Veaceslav Ionita anticipated that the card payments will continue to increase in number. At most 65% of the money will continue to be withdrawn in cash.
