Survey finds 27 pct of Romanian bank account holders pay via internet and mobile banking

The pandemic has given a boost to digitization, as 27 percent of the Romanians with a bank account are now paying via internet and mobile banking, executive director at the Romanian Banks Association (ARB) Gabriela Folcut told the first edition of the Financial Education Forum on Thursday.

"Digitization received a boost. It didn't start during the pandemic, it only picked up speed. We saw a strong acceleration in the transition to cashless, contactless operations during this period. Previously, in 2015, 94 percent of retail payments were cash, but a recent IRES survey shows that 27 percent of the Romanians with a bank account now pay via internet and mobile banking, so we are setting off from the paradigm that in 2015 only 6 percent were electronic payments, whereas now 27 percent of the customers pay via internet. Internet and mobile banking payments have in fact tripled over the last decade and the boost is particularly visible during the pandemic. If we look at the numbers we see that the amount and number of payment transactions by cards issued by resident payment service providers were 53.3 percent higher in December 2021 versus December 2019, covering the two-year period of the pandemic," said Gabriela Folcut.

According to the ARB official, the amount of payment transactions by card stands at 48.5 billion RON for 365 million transactions; there are currently approximately 19.6 million cards in Romania.

Gabriela Folcut said that an ARB-commissioned survey on the "Banking system's digitization in the perception of Romanians" conducted by IRES has revealed three types of banking service or product users in the context of the pandemic.

Thus, 47 percent prefer online interaction with the bank and consider that easy access to banking services via internet/mobile is of utmost importance to them; 19 percent prefer physical interaction with the bank, but occasionally use the mobile banking application; and 34 percent mostly go to the bank whenever necessary and don't consider easy internet/mobile access to banking services to be paramount.

The first edition of the Financial Education Forum is an initiative of the Financial Supervisory Authority, the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and the Romanian Banks Association and takes place under the High Patronage of the President of Romania.