Financial Cards and Payments in Eastern Europe

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key Findings

COVID-19 hits consumer spending

Consumer spending patterns in Eastern Europe were significantly affected by the pandemic in 2020. When possible, people avoided handling cash for hygiene reasons, encouraging greater use of card and, in particular, contactless payments. Debit cards were the main beneficiary of this, with people looking to keep control of their spending in what was a difficult economic environment.

Pandemic sees a major decline in cash usage

While cash remains an important payment mode, it continues to lose out to alternative forms of payment. This development is also being supported by growing merchant acceptance of card and contactless payments as well as, in many cases in 2020, an increase in the maximum contactless spending limit on cards. Consumers are therefore increasingly being won over by the convenience of cashless payment methods, particularly via their smartphones. Government policies are also generally encouraging the trend towards cashless transactions.

Sberbank the number one card issuer

As the clear leading financial card player in Russia, Sberbank therefore also remains the number one card issuer in Eastern Europe, in terms of both number of cards and transaction value. Its Spasibo programme continues to gain new partners (merchants). After a major relaunch in July 2018, Sberbank again updated and relaunched Spasibo in mid-2019 in an attempt to simplify terms of use for consumers and increase bonuses.

Return to growth from 2021

In spite of the economic impact of COVID-19, the post-pandemic period is expected to see a return to positive annual growth rates for consumer payments. Cards and electronic direct/ACH transactions will enjoy healthy growth rates, while m-commerce will be most dynamic but cash will continue to struggle.