Romania Cards and Payments - Opportunities and Risks to 2026

Romania Cards and Payments - Opportunities and Risks to 2026

Summary
’Romania Cards and Payments - Opportunities and Risks to 2026’ report provides detailed analysis of market trends in Romania’s cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cash, cards, credit transfers, direct debits, and cheques during the review-period (2018-22e).

The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2022e-26f). It also offers information on the country’s competitive landscape, including market shares of issuers and schemes.

The report brings together research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers detailed regulatory policies and recent changes in regulatory structure.

The report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into Romania’s cards and payments industry, including -
- Current and forecast values for each market in Romania’s cards and payments industry, including debit, credit, and charge cards.
- Detailed insights into payment instruments including cash, cards, credit transfers, direct debits, and cheques. It also, includes an overview of the country’s key alternative payment instruments.
- Ecommerce market analysis.
- Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing Romania’s cards and payments industry.
- Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit, and charge cards.

Scope
- Domestic instant payment service Pl??i Instant was launched on April 22, 2019, by Transfond (the operator of the Automated Clearing House for Interbank Payments) in collaboration with the National Bank of Romania, Romanian credit institutions, and the Romanian Association of Banks. Based on the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme, Pl??i Instant only supports Romanian leu transfers between accounts held in the country. The system operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, with fund transfers settled within 10 seconds. A maximum of RON49,999 ($11,492.72) per transaction is allowed. As of December 2021, there were six participants supporting instant payments: Banca Transilvania, Banca Comerciala Romania (BCR) (part of Erste Group), CEC Bank, Libra Internet Bank, Vista Bank, and Patria Bank.
- Pago is a billing service that allows users to pay for utility bills, mobile phone top-ups, local taxes, and select insurance products. Since its inception in 2017, the Pago mobile app has processed 10 million utility bill transactions worth RON1.1 billion ($252.8 million) in Romania. In February 2022, Pago launched real-time money transfers between cards issued by any bank in Romania using only the mobile phone number of the recipient.
- The migration of cash to cards has been supported by the increasing preference for contactless payments. This trend has been boosted by COVID-19, with consumers increasingly embracing touch-free payments. Overall, the number of contactless cards increased from 12.5 million in 2018 to 19.5 million in 2022e. The adoption of card payments in the transport sector will further support growth. In April 2022, Romania-based IT solutions provider for transport and telecommunications Radcom partnered with OTP Bank and Mastercard to launch a contactless payment system for public transport in the cities of Bra?ov, Ia?i, and Constan?a.

Reasons to Buy
- Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to Romania’s cards and payments industry and each market within it.
- Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in Romania’s cards and payments industry.
- Assess the competitive dynamics in Romania’s cards and payments industry.
- Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Romania.
- Gain insights into key regulations governing Romania’s cards and payments industry.