Share of contactless NFC payments reaches 60% in Ukraine - Mastercard

MOSCOW. Aug 17 (Interfax) - Six out of every ten payments in retail outlets in Ukraine are made with NFC smartphones and gadgets, Mastercard said in transaction statistics for the second quarter of 2023.

"Ukraine has been among the top ten countries in the world by the number of NFC payments with Mastercard digital cards for five years now. Ukraine entered the top five along with Australia, the UK, the Netherlands and the United States in the second quarter," Ukrainian media quoted Yury Batkhin, vice president for business development at Mastercard in Ukraine and Moldova, as saying in a company press release.

The payment system links the rapid development of NFC payments with the growing popularity of digital wallets, which makes it possible to turn a gadget into a convenient means of payment, as well as with the proliferation of contactless payment technology, facilitated by the development of a network of payment terminals that support this type of payment.

According to the National Bank of Ukraine, almost 97% of POS-terminals in the country accept contactless payments, Mastercard said.

It said 95% of all payments with Mastercard cards in outlets in Ukraine are contactless. The most popular NFC transactions are for groceries, food, clothing and footwear and filling stations.

The NBU has said the number of payment terminals in the retail and services network decreased by 15.8% in 2022 compared to 2021 to 359,200, of which 348,100 or 96.9% were contactless terminals. The number of banking devices such as ATMs, PTS and payment terminals fell 25.5% to 37,600.

PrivatBank had the largest number of payment terminals at the beginning of 2023 with-60.4%, Oschadbank with 19.6% and Raiffeisen Bank with 7.6%.

The Visa payment system increased its share of the Ukrainian payment card market to 45.6% in 2022 from 42.4% in 2021, while market leader Mastercard's share decreased to 53.9% from 56.9%.