Ukraine is getting cashless at breakneck speed.
Cashless transactions accounted for a staggering 87% of overall transactions in 2020 in Ukraine, which is 25% more than in 2019, according to the latest report by Ukraine’s National Bank on March 3.
Last year Ukrainians used their bank cards for 5.2 million non-cash transactions worth $80 billion. It includes purchases made online — in online stores and simple card-to-card transactions — and with payment terminals in stores.
The global pandemic accelerated the trend. With the high risk of the spread of the coronavirus, Ukrainians had to rely more on touch-free payments and no-contact deliveries.
Besides, with non-essential shops and malls closed during the first lockdown from March to May and then again in January, Ukrainians had no option but to get used to buying goods online.
Besides, a global poll conducted in April 2020 by MasterCard — the card system payment behind 64% of cashless transactions in Ukraine — found that 82% of people worldwide see contactless payments as a cleaner way to pay for goods than cash.
Apart from cleanliness, Ukrainians also widely used contactless cards and smartphones because such transactions are faster, safer and more convenient.
On average, Ukrainians spend $51 on every card-to-card transaction while paying just $8 for each payment made with point-of-sale terminals.
The number of internet transactions jumped by 31% in 2020, accounting for 36.5% of all card transactions. In stores, almost 20% of transactions were with smartphones, a sum worth nearly $4 billion.
Half of the cashless transactions went through point-of-sale terminals, accounting for $21.2 billion.
The number of businesses accepting cashless payments has grown too — it jumped by 36% to 326,900, while each business often owns more than one point-of-sale terminal.
The number of contactless point-of-sale terminals doubled in five years — from 200,000 in 2016 to 375,000 in 2021.
