Ukraine among world leaders in using contactless payment, over 60% of payments made using gadgets

Six out of ten contactless payments in Ukraine were made via NFC-enabled gadgets in the second quarter of this year, a Mastercard study revealed. The share of payments with smartphones and gadgets with NFC among all contactless payments with Mastercard cards in physical retail crossed the 60% mark.

Ukraine has been among the Top 10 countries in the world in adopting NFC payments with digital cards for the past five years. In the second quarter of 2023, Ukraine was in the Top 5, alongside Australia, the U.K., the Netherlands, and the U.S.A.

The rapid development of NFC payments is driven by the growing popularity of digital wallets and the spread of contactless payment technology.

"Contactless has become an absolute favorite for payments among Ukrainians, and today Ukraine is among the top ten leading countries in the world in terms of the number of contactless transactions with Mastercard cards," the company said.

Among the most popular categories are grocery retail, catering, clothing and footwear, and gas stations.

The development of a network of payment terminals that support this type of payment has also become an important foundation for the spread of contactless payment culture. Today, almost 97% of POS (point of service) terminals in the country accept contactless payments.

Earlier, NV reported that Visa payment system, Portmone payment platform, and ConcordBank are launching a POS Phone application that will allow businesses to use smartphones as POS terminals.