Of the 23.7 million operations performed last year in Moldova with cards issued in the country, 19.1 million were operations to withdraw cash and only 4.6 million were operations to make cashless payments, show data of the central bank. The cards in circulation totaled 1.3 million, an increase of 13.1% on a year before.
Contacted by IPN, economic analyst of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Ion Tornea said there is a tradition and a culture of using cards in Moldova. But the banks and the economic entities do not make effort to popularize these payment methods.
In most of the rural settlements, there is no infrastructure for using cards. “So, even if the people receive money on cards, they cannot make cashless payments because the shops are not outfitted with point-of-sale terminals. On the other hand, the shops do not install POS terminals owing to the low financial flows through them,” said the analyst. The situation will change when the salaries are increased and the people consume more.
The operations with cards issued in Moldova last year amounted to over 26.5 billion lei. The cash withdrawals totaled 25 million lei. There are 11,541 POS terminals, 56 imprinters and
1,082 ATMs in Moldova.