Cashless Transactions Prevail among Card-Based Ones

In January–March 2021, the total number of transactions (cashless payments and cash withdrawals) involving payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks was 1,691 million. The total amount of these transactions was UAH 1,089.1 billion. These transactions increased in number by 22.1%, and in value by 18.3% compared to the same period last year.

In Q1 2021, cashless transactions confidently led the way in payment card transactions, both in number and in value.

Specifically, 9 in 10 transactions in Q1 2021 were cashless (almost 90% of the total number of payment card transactions). The share of cashless transactions in the value of all card transactions was 61%. In Q1 of last year, these indicators were 85.4% and 54.6%, respectively.

In general, in January–March 2021, the number of cashless payment card transactions increased by more than one-fourth (28%) to 1,512.8 million, while their value rose by one-third (32%) to UAH 664.3 billion compared to the same period last year.

An analysis of the breakdown of cashless transactions by type shows that in January–March 2021, the majority of card transactions were:

• by number – retail network payments (49.3% or 402 million) 
• by value – card-to-card transfers (42.1% or UAH 280 billion)

In general, more than one-third of cashless payment card transactions in Q1 2021 were made via the internet (36.7%).   In January–March 2021, these transactions totaled almost UAH 202.3 billion. 

Two-thirds of POS terminal transactions were contactless.

Since the beginning of 2021, the total number of payment cards in Ukraine has grown by 3% to 75.3 million.  More than half of those (54.2%) were used in March 2021 for spending transactions.

Since the beginning of the year, the number of active contactless cards has increased by almost 10% to 14.1 million. 

Approximately one in ten active payment cards is tokenized. Their number stands at 4.2 million units. It is 6% more than at the beginning of the year. 

The contactless and tokenized cards are so popular because they make transactions more secure, rapid, and convenient.

As a result, only one-third of transactions through retail POS terminals by value and number were performed using the physical reading of data from the card chip. The remaining two-thirds of transactions were contactless (transactions with contactless cards or using smartphones and other devices). In Q1 2021, they amounted to UAH 119 billion.

The network of retail POS terminals is expanding

This year, the steady expansion of cashless payments infrastructure continued. Since the beginning of 2021, the number of points of sale accepting payment cards has grown by 2% to 333,500.

The retail POS terminals network in Ukraine also increased by almost 2% in the first three months of this year, to 382,000 units. About 87% of POS terminals have the contactless payment capability.

As of 1 April 2021, the total number of POS terminals (both contact and contactless) per one million of Ukraine’s residents* was 9,600 (up from 8,300 terminals per 1 million people in Q1 2020).