Half of Russians Made Payments Cashless in Q1 2019

Sberbank and operator of fiscal data OFD Platform have again analysed the development of cashless payments in Russia.

The number of cashless payments in Russia was 49.4% of the total amount of expenses for the first quarter of 2019. This is 5.2 pp higher than last year’s result.

In the first quarter of 2019, the residents of 29 regions made more cashless payments than cash ones. The three leaders are the Murmansk Region, Karelia and Komi where the share of cashless payments was 58%. Saint Petersburg was eighth with 54.2%, and Moscow was only twelfth with 53%.

According to SberData (Sberbank’s initiative on processing and analysing big data), the share of the cashless retail turnover increased in all regions of Russia compared to the first quarter of 2018: from 0.9 pp in the Republic of Chechnya to 8.1 pp in the Chukotka Autonomous Region. The Belgorod Region and Republic of Khakassia had the highest indicators (8.1 and 7.7 pp, respectively). The Republic of Bashkortostan, and the Nizhny Novgorod and Samara Regions were close to 50%. More than 40% of transactions were cashless in 70 regions.

The analysis of cashless payments in 300 most populated cities of the country showed the following results: the leader was Petrozavodsk with 60.1%, followed by Syktyvkar (59.4%). Cities in fifteen regions were in the top 20.

Fast introduction of cashless operations is common for small cities. Verkhnyaya Pyshma in the Sverdlovsk Region, Stary Oskol in the Belgorod Region and Belgorod are the cities where cashless payments are growing the fastest. This indirectly means that these cities are creating cashless infrastructure.

The highest growth of the share of card payments is in the Restaurant and Bar category, according to ODF Platform: 68% of consumer expenses are cashless.

In the Electronics category, the cashless indicator increased by 19 pp in the year to 67%. Now this segment is second in terms of introduction of such payments. The only category where Russians prefer to use banknotes and coins are Small Stores near Home. The Supermarket and Fast Food segments are also a bit behind.