Development of innovation services and noncash card settlements in Ukraine positively effects financial habits of Ukrainians. If previously payment card holders used to withdraw cash form ATMs, today they prefer noncash settlements.
Noncash Transactions Prevail in Value and in Number
In 2019, the total number of transactions (cashless payments and cash withdrawals) involving payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks was 5,057.3 million, with the value of these transactions totaling UAH 3,576.7 billion. Such operations increased in number by 29.2%, and in value – by 24.3% yoy.
Noncash transactions prevailed in number – 4,167.1 million (82.4%), i.e. eight of ten payment card transactions were noncash.
The value of noncash transactions amounted to UAH 1,798.3 billion and accounted for 50.3% of all card transactions (in 2018 – 45.1%). Five years ago, this indicator was only 25%. Thus, noncash payment card transactions are gaining popularity with the Ukrainian public.
Breakdown of noncash operations by type of transactions shows that last year the majority of card transactions is attributed to retail network payments – 51.2%, and card-to-card payments prevailed in value – 42.4%.
A Quarter of Active Payment Cards Are Contactless or Tokenized
As of 1 January 2020, the number of payment cards in Ukraine grew 16% yoy and accounted for 68.9 million. Almost two thirds of the mentioned number are active payment cards (61.2%).
The active trend continues in contactless payment using contactless cards, smartphones and other NFC devices attributed to security, speed and convenience of such operations.
The number of contactless payment cards in 2019 more than doubled from 3.9 million to 8.6 million cards. As of 1 January 2020, the number of tokenized payment cards* was 2.5 million. So, at present, more than a quarter of active payment cards are contactless and tokenized (26.5% or 11.2 million cards).
Noncash transactions involving contactless and tokenized cards accounted for almost a third of the total number and value of noncash transactions in retail networks (36% each).
90% Retail POS Terminals Support Contactless Payments
Last year, the payment market showed stable expansion of the payment infrastructure, first of all with regards to contactless payments associated with the popularity of contactless operations. Since the start of 2019, the network of POS terminals in Ukraine has expanded by 19.7%, to 333,800 units. At the same time, 90% of POS terminals have the contactless payment capability (up from 79.4% as of 1 January 2019).
In general, over the last five years the number of retail payment terminals increased at a pace of 31,000units per year. Today, terminals are almost twice the number of 2015.
As of 1 January 2020, the ratio of the total number of POS terminals (both contact and contactless) to the Ukrainian resident population** was 8,400 units per 1,000,000 people.
However, the POS network remains unevenly distributed across Ukraine. Western regions and Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts have the smallest number of payment devices per capita. Payment cards and payment devices are mostly concentrated in the city of Kyiv, and in Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv oblasts.
For reference:
As of 1 January 2020, 70 participants in card payment systems were registered in Ukraine.
*Created by changing the details of payment cards for unique digital identifiers and further used for transactions by means of NFC devices (in particular, such payment services as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Garmin Pay etc.)
**According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.