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ELECTRONIC PAYMENT GAINING IN POPULARITY

Hungarians use 9 million bank cards, 75% of which are contactless cards, and modern electronic payment solutions are now accepted by 110,000 shops and service providers using almost 140,000 POS terminals, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said in an interview with MTI.

Digitalising the payment system has a considerable impact on competitiveness since cashless payment options make it quicker, safer, cheaper and more convenient to execute payment transactions, he said.

The volume of cash in circulation in Hungary is currently over 5,000 billion forints (EUR 15.4bn) or more than 14% of GDP as against the EU average of 8%. Handling cash costs the country hundreds of billions of forints every year. Raising financial awareness and encouraging the use of modern electronic payment options instead of cash is common interest, Varga said. The finance ministry called a two-round tender two years ago to support the installation of 60,000 POS terminals at shops and service providers across the country, half of which are already operating. Once the programme is completed, almost 80% of shops in Hungary will accept bank cards, Varga said.

The value of bank card purchases exceeded 5,000 billion forints for the first time last year compared to 3,980 billion in 2016. As the ratio of electronic payments is still only 25%, there is still room for further expansion, he said.