Number of cards with a payment function in Romania 2009-2020

This statistic shows the development in the total number of payment cards issued in Romania from 2009 to 2020. The number of cards with a payment function on the Romanian market amounted to approximately 18.73 million in 2020. This represented an increase of more than 40 percent compared to the number of cards issued in 2010. Out of the total number of cards in circulation, only 14.59 million cards were still active as of 2021.

Value of card payments

As a consequence of the increasing number of payment cards in Romania, it comes as no surprise that the total value of card payments increased as well. In other words, if in 2012 the value of card payments was approximately 4.2 billion Romanian lei, the amount almost tripled by 2018. Moreover, the value of payments made by using a card with a credit function constantly increased since 2013, amounting to three billion euros by 2019. Unfortunately, the fast evolution of card payments and digital payments over the years left room for the development of new ways of fraud, such as: counterfeiting cards, stealing cards, and ID fraud. This is why the value of card fraud losses peaked in 2018 at 12.3 million Romanian lei.

Number of ATMs

The number of automated teller machines (ATMs) provided by resident PSPs in Romania varied since 2015. Overall, by the fourth quarter of 2019, there were approximately 1,207 ATMs less than in the second quarter of 2015. Nevertheless, by 2021 there were over nine thousand ATMs with a cash withdrawal function and more than eight thousand ATMs with a credit transfer function.