There was a 33% rise in the volume of POS payments in December compared to the same time of the previous year.

Bulgarians made purchases for nearly 370 million lev in the traditionally strong month for shopping, December. This shows an analysis of UniCredit Bulbank based on its clients’ purchases at POS terminals and cash withdrawals from ATMs.

During the big holiday spending at the end of last year consumers allocated nearly 20% more of their family budget for gifts and food compared to last year. Some of the most wanted presents were clothes and home appliances and technology. The analysis of UniCredit Bulbank shows that after the clothing and technology stores, the largest number of POS payments was made in supermarkets, furniture stores, petrol stations, hotels and restaurants.

In the holiday month of December, the clients of UniCredit Bulbank made card payments for over 81 million lev, which is 33% more compared to the same month of 2013. The data confirm the trend of growth in payments for goods and services by card. The number of payments is also growing fast, by 29% to slightly over 1 million operations at POS terminals only last month. The increase in cash withdrawals on the other hand is significantly lower than that with POS payments. In the last month of the already past year, UniCredit Bulbank saw an increase of 17% on December 2013. With online commerce the increase is by 22%.

One of the main reasons for the growing number of payments at POS terminals is the rapid spread of contactless payments. Currently UniCredit Bulbank has issued over 260,000 contactless cards and serves them at nearly 4,000 contactless terminals. These form respectively around one fifth of all issued contactless cards in Bulgaria and nearly 30% of all contactless terminals serviced on market level. The updated data of the spreading of the new payment standard in Europe show that consumers can make contactless payments at 2 million terminals in 25 countries, which is a 67% increase in one year.

Further information for clients:

UniCredit Bulbank, Call Centre

Phone number: 0700 1 84 84

More information for media:

UniCredit Bulbank, Identity & Communications Department

Ekaterina Ancheva, Phone: + 359 2 9264 963, flbufsjob/bodifwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Magdalena Ivanova, Phone: + 359 2 9232 528, nbhebmfob/jwbopwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch