More than 40% of all payments are made without cash. Is Slovakia on a way to become a cashless society? When will it happen? Come and join us at the CASHLESS DAY on Thursday, November 8.

• The second year of the CASHLESS DAY project brings inspirational speakers, leaders and managers from the private, public and non-profit field to Bratislava.
• Head of Banking Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, Richard Ráši will start the event with an opening speech. He will speak about Slovakia moving towards cashless society and modern trends.
• This year’s top speaker list includes Geronimo Emili, one of the most famous opponents of cash in Italy and the founder of the first association for cashless payments called CashlessWay and also Director for Business Development at MasterCard, Cecilia Akerman, Visa Country Manager for Czech Republic and Slovakia, Marcel Gajdoš and the Head of Banking Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, Martin Peter

Bratislava, November 6, 2018 – This year we will pay 560 million times and spend 28 billion euros with payment cards issued in Slovakia, says Bank Card Association and adds that compared to the previous year we will experience an interesting increase. In 2017 Slovaks made 481 million transactions and spend 24 billion euros. “More than 40% of payments are non-cash transactions while 60% are made in cash. This ratio is constantly changing in favor of non-cash payments however, there still a long way for Slovakia to become cashless. We have to work on implementation of new technologies to smaller cities where people still do not trust payment cards,” says Rastislav Vallo, chairman of Bank Card Association.

This is also a reason why Bank Card Association organizes CASHLESS DAY. Its vision is to move Slovakia towards world trends in cashless payments, mobile and online transactions and thus higher protection and safety of our money. CASHLESS DAY points out that payments made with a payment card are safer, faster and easier than payments made in cash. Cashless payments also help the state to eliminate shadow economy and illegal money movements that are not part of the records.

Today a payment card is a standard. Experts and card issuers expect their stable growth in upcoming years. “It is important to say that the question is how and in what form will consumers use their payment cards. There is an upcoming trend of card digitalization which could cause that more cards will be issued as digital rather than physical. Slovaks are now buyingmore things online where the spending number is rising twice as fast as in physical world,” says Marcel Gajdoš, Visa Country Manager for Czech Republic and Slovakia.An important step for nationwide launch of mobile payments is implementation of Google Pay service in Slovakia, says Marcel Gajdoš. “This service moved buying experience of card holders on another level. We expect a tenfold increase in the number of devices by 2020 that will be able to receive and make payments thanks to payment digitalization. Mobile payments will be the next revolution in payment methods in Slovakia,” says Marcel Gajdoš.

Payment methods constantly evolve. It is more than 10 years since Slovaks began to use contactless payments. Contactless payments are very popular and most payments made are contact less today. “Launch of Google Pay was a great gift to the ten years’ anniversary of contactless transactions. Slovaks are very well acquainted with the payment innovations and the popularity of payment cards is growing. That’s the reason why we want to implement even more payment methods available including paying via smartphones, payment bracelets and payments via QR code Masterpass,”says Miroslav Lukeš, General Manager of Mastercard for the Slovakia, Czech Republic and Austria. The most significant progress he sees is in the growing public interest in non-cash payments:“Payment cards are being introduced for example in bureaus or in transport where passengers get tickets much easier, safer and cheaper. There are even more projects coming to public. Slovakia is a key leader in implementation of these technologies for MasterCard.

Development of payments made via payment cards issued in Slovakia

Source: Slovak Banking Association. The year 2018 is an estimate of Bank Card Association calculated from the data from Slovak Banking Association and an estimate of the market development.

About the CASHLESS DAY PROJECT

CASHLESS DAY is a unique project undertaken by a Bank Card Association. Ministry of finance of the Slovak Republic, card companies MasterCard and Visa and also a technological giant Samsung and HN conference (Conferences of the Economy newspapers) are partners of the project.  The Deputy Prime Minister’s Office for Investments and Informatization of the Slovak Republic Richard Ráši has also supported the project. The vision of the CASHLESS DAY PROJECT is to move Slovakia closer to the world payment trends including cashless payments, mobile and safer online transactions. Find more here: www.denbezhotovosti.sk.

About the Bank Card Association

Bank Card Association was established in January 19, 1994 and it has a long lasting history. It has been on the Slovak market for more than 23 years and It is the only platform that educates people on the subject of payment cards. It also connects banks and non-bank entities with a common goal of cashless payments development. ZBK has stable 20 members – 11 bank and 11 non-bank entities. Please find more information here: www.zbk.sk.