With a population of nearly 39 million, Poland is by far the largest
of the ten countries that joined the European Union in May 2004, and
the one with the largest banking sector. Administered by the National
Bank of Poland, the card payment system has several service providers
(PKO Bank Polski, CKC Pekao SA, Cardpoint, Citibank) of which PolCard
is the leader with over 50% of the market. PolCard is responsible
for the management of ATMs and Eftpos terminals, issues cards and
authorisations, and processes e-commerce transactions (Poland has
around 750 merchant sites, and 29% of the population was Internet
user at end 2003).
The Polish market for bankcards is growing rapidly. At present, 17 million
bankcards have been issued in the country (mainly magnetic stripe
cash withdrawal and debit cards), and this number is set to climb
47% by 2008. Bankcards currently account for only 4% of payment transactions,
as the Polish are still very cash orientated (75% of purchases). The
smart card is being introduced very gradually, and to date, only several
thousand EMV cards have been issued by Bank Zachodmi WBK. Although
the level of fraud is still particularly low, the switch to EMV will
be stepped up this year.
For more details, log onto:
www.polcard.com.pl
|
