Romanian lender BCR: Ratio of credit card payments within total transactions triples in six years

A recent survey carried out by Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) among its clients shows that 87 percent of the total transactions were payments by credit card, with the figure up from just 29 percent in 2007. The same trend was found in the case of debit card holders, where the ratio of shopping card payments went up to 38 percent, from 12 percent six years ago, according to BCR. For non-cash transactions, the most active clients are those in Bucharest and Ilfov, followed by Timis and Brasov. The most frequently used non-cash channels preferred by BCR clients are POS payments, Click 24 Bankingoperations, automatic payments using Direct Debit and Standing Order and payments made through ATMs . According to the same survey, most of the Direct Debit agreements were concluded by clients in Bucharest, Constanta and Arges counties, while most of the ATM invoice payment agreements were made by clients in Bucharest and Sibiu and Brasov counties. Romanian lender BCR, majority owned by Austrian Erste Bank, ended the first half of this year with a net profit of EUR 126 million, close to the profit in the same period of 2012. BCR has a network of over 2,200 ATMs and 15,000 POS terminals for card payments to merchants. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com