According to the data of Association of Latvian Commercial Banks, compared to 2015, the number of POS terminals in Latvia increased 16% in 2016, reaching 41,613 terminals in total. On average, 494 new POS terminals are released in the country.
Aside from that, the number of legal persons using POS terminals to process clients’ payments has also increased significantly in recent years. At the beginning of 2016, 10,524 Latvian traders secured 21,308 places for POS transactions, which secured an increase of 4% when compared with 2015.
In general, POS terminals secured 12.5 million DNB Bank clients’ transactions with a total turnover of EUR 1,700 million last year. The total number of monthly transactions performed throughout January to March exceeded 1 million and the average monthly turnover – EUR 12 million, slowly exceeding last year’s indexes.
“In the first half of the year, turnover of POS terminals continued moderately increasing every year, reaching the highest point in summer. This can be explained with the fact that people use warm months of the year to travel, which is usually accompanied with additional expenses. Seasonal traders also become active in warmer months of the year – street cafes, fairs and others. We also see this reflected in our portfolio: the number of POS terminals usually increases in summer and decreases in autumn, because traders return terminals that are not necessary for the autumn-winter season,” explains Marine Krasovska, head of DNB Bank’s corporate management solutions department. “Slow decline is usually noted in turnover of POS terminal in the autumn season. It usually increases in the post-celebratory period, reaching the highest level in December.”
Average costs of companies to perform services have declined during the course of the year. This was because of declining commission fee for transactions using non-cash transactions, in accordance with changes in the regulations of the European Parliament and European Council 2015/751 on interbank commission. Because of that, the use of POS terminals is especially advantageous for companies. In addition, securing the ability to process card transactions helps a company better adapt to the needs of their clients and reduces the risk associated with cash storage.
Considering rapidly growing rate of use of contactless payment cards, DNB Bank has been actively using POS terminals lately. Such transaction types allow clients to perform purchases more quickly and more conveniently. This helps reduce waiting time in queues. This is especially important for companies in which customers spend relatively small amounts of money. DNB Bank already offers contactless card processing services for 30% clients. The number of active POS terminals with contactless card functionality already reaches 8 thousand. (BNN/Business World Magazine)