The holders of cards issued by local banks have made payments to merchants of RON 7.6 billion (EUR 1.7 billion) in the first six months of this year, up by 22 percent compared to the same period of last year, according to National Bank of Romania (BNR) data.
On the other hand, cash withdrawals increased by 17 percent in January- June, close to RON 38 billion (EUR 8.5 billion).
In H1 of this year, Romanians made 66 million payments at the POS, which means that the average value of card transactions at merchants was RON 115, RON 2 less than in the first half of 2015.
At the same time, BNR reveals that the average value of withdrawals from ATMs was RON 598 between January and June, which represents about a third of the average monthly net salary of RON 2,000. For comparison, in 2015 the average value of withdrawals with local cards stood at RON 554.
At end-June, the banks had in their portfolio about 11.4 million active cards, up by 800,000 units compared to June of the previous year. Active cards are commonly used by owners.
Meanwhile, the installed POS network by the banks at local retailers reached almost 148,800 units in H1, a historic high, with 13,000 units more than the level in June 2015.
There were 11,615 ATMs after the first six months of the year, down by 140 than the previous year.