OREANDA-NEWS. March 21, 2012. According to the statistics of the Bank of Estonia, by the end of 2011, there were 19,508 points of sale in Estonia where card payments could be made. The number of such points of sale increased by 11 per cent in 2011, that is, 2253 new points of sale with payment terminals were added, and the volume of card payments increased by 32 per cent last year – to EUR 3.5 billion from EUR 2.7 billion in 2010, reported the press-centre of SEB.

“Before the adoption of the euro, traders and service companies were worried that more coins would be placed into circulation than previously, the processing of which is expensive for society and inconvenient for both consumers and traders. The alternative was to use more card payments than before, but this was too expensive mainly for small traders because of the fixed costs. A year ago, SEB decreased the small traders’ fee for the use of a payment terminal by more than 5 times, down to only EUR 5 per month, bringing about rapid interest by traders towards providing the opportunities for card payments,” Eerika Vaikmae-Koit, Head of Retail Banking and Technology at SEB noted.

“Cuts in the monthly fee of card payment terminals allowed for the overcoming of the deadlock where card payment fees could not be lowered because volumes were not increasing. Due to the large expenses, trade was not interested in introducing card payments opportunities. The initiative shown by SEB influenced the entire market and more than a thousand card payment terminals were added in the form of our clients alone. Thanks to mobile devices, card payment opportunities were introduced in taxis, trains and police cars, for example. It could be said that the step taken by SEB, in the form of subsidising card payment terminals, justified itself as it increased card payment opportunities and thereby increased volumes and allowed for the lowering of fees,” Vaikmae-Koit added.

According to the statistics of SEB, the provision of card payments increased the most in Northern Estonia, which also boasts the largest number of clients in the service and trade sector. In North-Estonia, twice as many payment terminal contracts were signed as there were in 2010; in South-Estonia, the growth amounted to 76 per cent, in West-Estonia, 51 per cent and in East-Estonia, 41 per cent.