Electronic payments are the means of payment increasingly chosen for purchases in Uruguay, According to the report “Retail Payment Systems” who published the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU): in the second half of 2022, 53 million interbank transfers were registered, which marks an increase of 13% year-on-year.
The report points out a representative fact: 7 out of 10 pesos spent are through electronic payments. Since 2015, this figure has not stopped growing, and they are gaining more and more ground over cash payments.
Regarding the total number of plastics emitted, the BCU report shows that, at the end of 2022, it stood at 3,494,938. If compared to the cards issued as of June last year, in just six months the number increased by almost 46,000 new cards. In addition, they were incorporated into the system 30,000 new headlines of this means of payment, keeping the average of 2.5 cards per cardholder stable.
Likewise, 87% of the transactions corresponded to operations of purchase of goods and services —including automatic debits—, which increased 29% in year-on-year terms. The remainder was due to cash-out transactions.
For its part, the total amount traded in pesos with electronic money in the second half of 2022 it had an interannual rise of the order of 12%; while the amount of operations for the purchase of goods and services, in particular, increased by 30%.
If the global figures for cards —debit, credit and electronic money— are analyzed, transaction volumes registered an increase of 20% in year-on-year terms, considering the second half of last year as a temporary period.
What are the most used channels?
The number of operations processed by payment and collection service providers —web payments, mobile payments, remittances and among others—, verified a year-on-year increase of 7% in the second half of 2022.
The traditional payment and collection networks, which involve face-to-face, continue to concentrate most of the operations with a participation of 88%. However, digital networks have been increasing their participationand went from representing 3% of the total in 2018 to 12% in 2022.
The web payments, For their part, they maintained a Upward trend in the number of transactions, with an increase in total volume traded of 21% year-on-year. Similarly, the number of mobile payment operations had an increase of 20% year-on-year.
If 2022 is compared with 2021, the number of web payments went from 43 to 54 million (25% increase), while those made by mobile applications rose from 8.1 to 10.3 million (27% increase). , which shows a increasing use of online payment tools.
He Index of Electronic Payments over Traditional Payments (IPET), which compares transactions made with cards, transfers, mobile payments, etc.; Above others such as cash withdrawals at ATMs and checks, it reached a maximum of 70% in the second half of 2022. This means that 70% of the total amounts operated were managed with electronic means of paymentas indicated by the BCU in its report.
“The participation of these instruments has maintained its path of uninterrupted growth since 2015, in which they represented 11% of the total,” he concluded.
Source: Ambito
