The number of contactless transactions in Turkey recorded a sharp 170% jump in March compared with the same period last year as people look for ways to minimize their interaction with surfaces amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to dailysabah.com.
Data released by the InterBank Card Center (BKM) data, some 2.5 million contactless cards were used for the first time in March and one out of every five card transactions was contactless as the pandemic started to create lasting changes in people’s purchasing habits.
Another factor pushing transactions up was the government’s decision to increase the spending limit on contactless card payments to TL 250 ($38.60) on March 18.
Meanwhile, the number of cards in the country rose 9% year-on-year to 239 million, including 168 million debit cards and 71 million credit cards, the BKM said.
The number of card payments also increased 3% year-on-year while the total amount of debit and credit card payments surged 9% to TL 85.5 billion in March.
Meanwhile, the number of cash withdrawals from ATM machines declined 14% compared with the same month in the previous year, data showed.
The coronavirus’s impact on consumer behavior was also reflected in the changing patterns of people’s online shopping habits in March, Canko said.
In March, online card payments increased 19% year-on-year to TL 16.5 billion and accounted for nearly 20% of total card payments, data showed. Meanwhile, 3 million cards were used online for the first time in March.
Online shopping continued to grow despite the overall fall in demand with the food sector recording the largest increase of 129% in March, compared with the same period last year. He said
Soner Canko, chairman of the card center said that the new changes in consumer behavior are here to stay at least in the upcoming months:
“We will see more card payments, fewer cash transactions, fast growth in contactless payments and upward trends in e-commerce.”
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
