Card Payments on the Increase

In the third quarter of 2019 the number of payment cards and within this, that of cards facilitating contactless payments continued to grow, according to a report by the National Bank of Hungary.

The expansion in the volume of electronic payments primarily continues to be a result of the dynamic growth of the number and total value of purchases conducted with payment cards. The purchases conducted with domestically issued payment cards in Hungary rose by 19% in terms of transaction number and by 22% in terms of value relative to the third quarter of 2018.

In addition to domestic card payment transactions conducted at merchants, online purchases with cards are becoming increasingly popular, with a 35% increase in terms of their number and a 51% increase in terms of their value compared with the same period of 2018. In the case of credit transfers and direct debits the stable growth of previous periods also continued, with the total value of individual HUF credit transfers rising by over 13%, which exceeded significantly the previous levels.

Moreover, frauds committed with payment cards declined substantially on both the issuer and acquirer sides considering the loss caused. Turnover of the payment and settlement systems grew slightly in the third quarter of 2019 and the payment and settlement system liquidity continued to be ample.