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The future is bright for Visa in Europe, with the Romanian market significantly contributing to this.
According to financial last year, ending on September 2015, total spending on Visa cards issued in Romania increased by 13 percent, at approximately EUR 24 billion, while the value of payments made directly at merchants went up 20 percent, twice faster than cash withdrawals from Visa cards.
“Over time, Romanians have dramatically changed their attitude towards the plastic in their wallet, with the upsurge of e-commerce, mobile payments or the spread of contactless technology,” Catalin Cretu, Subregional manager for Romania, Croatia, Malta and Slovenia at Visa Europe told a press conference on Thursday. He pointed out that cash is the strongest ally of the shadow economy, while electronic payments are traceable and transparent.
The number of Visa card payments at POS increased by 22 percent, with all types of cards reporting growth of more than 20 percent for this indicator. Overall, the number of Visa card payments increased six times faster than the number of cash withdrawals.
Thus, the average value transactions at merchants continued to drop in line with Visa’s objectives, by 2.3 percent, to less than EUR 33, indicating a more frequent usage of Visa cards for everyday payments.
“More than two thirds of Visa card payments are under RON 100, indicating a habit of making card payments on a daily basis, even for smaller amounts. In this respect, contactless represents the next level for electronic payments, and the 50-fold increase in the value of this type of transactions in the financial year 2015 is only the beginning of the success story for this technology,” Cretu stated.
Meanwhile in Europe, Visa accounts for more than EUR 1 in every EUR 5.70 spent.
Also, one important thing is the fact that Romania records low levels of fraud – RON 3 for every RON 100,000 spent, reported to less than EUR 5 for every EUR 100 spent at European level.
Visa card portfolio increased slightly, to 7.4 million units, in line with the trend of the core portfolio of debit cards, which experienced significant growth in both number of POS transactions (+22.2 percent) and value of payments (+19.1 percent).
Business cards, the second most important segment in the Visa portfolio, reported double-digit increases for all indicators for the fifth consecutive year. Visa Business cards portfolio increased by 10 percent in 2015 and card usage improved both at POS (+22.3 percent number of transactions; +18.7 percent value of payments) and in total spending (+14.8 percent).
At group level, the number of Visa cards issued in Europe now stands at 522 million – or more than one Visa card per adult. Point-of-sale spending has risen by 7.7 percent in the last year, to EUR 1.58 trillion.
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