Card and mobile phone payments grow in popularity in Slovakia

Payment cards and mobile phone payments are seeing an ever-increasing use in Slovakia; this follows from the latest statistics collected by the Slovak Banking Association. By the end of June 2020, the number of payment cards issued swelled by 99,247 pieces to about 5.3 million cards. More than 142 million transactions were carried out, worth a total of €6.6 billion. Concomitant to the growth is also the rising demand in mobile phone payments, with 7.2 million payments worth a total of €164.2 million carried out via mobile phones in January-June 2020 - a steep increase from 1.3 million payments worth €26.8 million made in the same period last year. "The growth in the number of mobile phone payments, which rose year-on-year more than fivefold, is driven mostly by the fact that it's a relatively new service, offered by more banks now than in the past. The growth potential has partially benefited also from the coronavirus crisis," said Slovak Banking Association analyst Marcel Laznia.