The bank card payment indicators in the second quarter of this year continued to follow an upward trend, the number of cards in circulations rising by 7.9% compared with the corresponding period last year. The number of cashless payments with cards issued in the Republic of Moldova grew by 55.2% on the second quarter of 2020, IPN reports, quoting a press release of the National Bank of Moldova.

87.3% of the number and 87.0% of the value of CT (credit transfer) operations were initiated in an electronic format through the agency of automated distance service systems, which reflects the level of digitization of the payment services in the Republic of Moldova.

Direct debiting remains an instrument that is not widely used in Moldova. Until the end of the second quarter of this year, this instrument was used by 21,600 payers. Direct debiting on Moldova’s territory is used only by private individuals, primarily for paying for public utilities.

The automated distance service systems (ADSS) have become increasingly popular among users. The number of users of ADSS at the end of the second quarter of 2021 increased compared with the same period last year, mainly due to the rise in the number of users of mobile payment systems. The number of active users rose by 21.3% compared with the second quarter of 2020 following the expanding need to use ADSS for making payments, especially in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

During April 1 – June 30, 2021, the automated interbank payment system functioned as usual, processing 3.4 million payments to the value of 280.2bn lei.