The pandemic has given a boost to digitization, as 27 percent of the Romanians with a bank account are now paying via internet and mobile banking, executive director at the Romanian Banks Association (ARB) Gabriela Folcut told the first edition of the Financial Education Forum on Thursday.
According to the ARB official, the amount of payment transactions by card stands at 48.5 billion RON for 365 million transactions; there are currently approximately 19.6 million cards in Romania.
Gabriela Folcut said that an ARB-commissioned survey on the "Banking system's digitization in the perception of Romanians" conducted by IRES has revealed three types of banking service or product users in the context of the pandemic.
Thus, 47 percent prefer online interaction with the bank and consider that easy access to banking services via internet/mobile is of utmost importance to them; 19 percent prefer physical interaction with the bank, but occasionally use the mobile banking application; and 34 percent mostly go to the bank whenever necessary and don't consider easy internet/mobile access to banking services to be paramount.
The first edition of the Financial Education Forum is an initiative of the Financial Supervisory Authority, the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and the Romanian Banks Association and takes place under the High Patronage of the President of Romania.