'Romania records good dynamics in terms of card payments, given that only 50 percent of the population uses banking services and, statistically, only six card payments per capita are recorded,' said Andrei Cretu.
However, the PwC survey shows that in Romania only 13 percent of the bank-using population uses POS terminals and 87 percent uses ATMs. In Central and Eastern Europe, 58 percent uses POS terminals, whilst in Western Europe - 64 percent.
'For years, we have been trying to shift users from ATMs to POS terminals. We have brought a lot of technology to this market. But education is a process that cannot be shortened, you can bring technology to a market, but you cannot force it. The consumer we want is one that has a current account, a debit card, a credit card and maybe a consumer loan and an Internet banking solution,' mentioned Cosmin Vladimirescu, country manager for Romania and Moldova at MasterCard Europe.
According to the PwC surveys, e-commerce can reach 1 billion euros by 2015.
