OREANDA-NEWS. November 30, 2011. The payment statistics of Eesti Pank shows that over 520,000 card payments a day have been made in Estonia in the first ten months of 2011, which is 17 per cent up from a year ago, reported the press-centre of Eesti Pank.

The value of card payments has grown by 14 per cent over the last nine months, which means that cards are used more and more for making small-value payments. This trend started in 2008, when the average card payment was 19 euros compared to 15.6 euros in the first ten months of 2011.

"The rate of development has been impressive - the number of card payments per person has grown by ten times to 18 payments a month," said Mihkel Nommela, Head of the Payment and Settlement Systems Department.

Nommela also said that the changes arising from Estonia's accession to the euro area and the Single European Payment Area (SEPA), which have already lowered the cost of cross-border payments for Estonian residents, set the ground for the next stage of development. "The payments statistics for this year show that the customers of Estonian banks have saved around 4.2 million euros this year on account of international payments that comply with SEPA requirements, with 77 per cent of that coming from payments received," Nommela noted.

The introduction of SEPA and SEPA payments in the entire European Economic Area would help save hundreds of billions of euros, as pointed out by the European Commission.

In the first ten months of this year, 24.6 million domestic payments were made through Estonian banks with the total value of 9.4 billion euros.

"The total value of payments reflects the dynamics of the economy. In 2009 the value of domestic payments contracted by 25% from 2008, while the number of payments did not change considerably. Since the end of 2009, the value figures have been going up again," said Mihkel Nommela.

Card payments made at points of sale in the first ten months of 2011 constituted 62 per cent of all domestic payments in terms of number and 2.3 per cent in terms of value. Household card payments made up 73 per cent of total payments and 23 per cent of the value of payments.

Internet banking payment orders are the second most popular mean of payment in Estonia after card payments. Internet banking payments accounted for 61 per cent of the value and 22 per cent of the number of payments in the first ten months of 2011.

Direct debits and standing orders made up 8.8 per cent of total payments, while comprising only 2.8 per cent of their value. The use of direct debits and standing orders is trending downward, which may be directly related to the decline in loan and leasing portfolios, and in the case of direct debits also to people's changed payment habits after the recent recession.

Paper-based credit orders accounted for 8.1 per cent of the value and 0.4 per cent of the number of domestic payments in the period in question. In the first ten months of 2007, for instance, paper-based credit orders constituted 23.9 per cent of the total payment value. The average payment in the first ten months of 2011 was 6,931 euros.

Estonian residents withdrew cash from ATMs four times a month on average, against 4.8 times a month in 2007. The average amount that was withdrawn this year was 72 euros.