GfK: Romania, second to last in the region on Internet banking penetration rate

Romania has one of the lowest penetration rates for Internet banking services in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), of only 4 percent, shows a recent GfK study. Bulgaria is the only country lagging behind Romania, with 2 percent of its inhabitants using this service, while countries like the Czech Republic and Austria record ratios of 42 percent, 32 percent respectively. From an average of 4.5 activities conducted on the Internet, 4.2 are for information, communication and entertainment, a small number of users accessing the Internet for transactions, according to GfK. Thus, from a total of 9.6 million people using banking services in Romania, only 4 percent check their account through Internet banking and 3 percent are doing transactions using this online service. However, over half of the Romanians use the Internet weekly, 80 percent using mobile phones, while 13 percent have smart phones. All data came from the GfK Financial Market Data System study (FMDS) that is conducted once every two months and measures residents' banking habits in 13 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (foto source: sxc.hu)