Romanians have quickly adopted contactless payments in public transport, three years after BCR and its partners began to introduce them on a large scale in the most important cities of the country. Over 22.4 million such transactions have been registered in the last three years, of which approximately 2 million in March 2021 alone, in an accelerated trend of increasing use, in the context of the pandemic.

In fact, according to Visa, these figures place Romania on the third place in Europe, after Great Britain and Poland, for digital payments in the field of public transport.

“The evolutions of the last three years confirm our Romanians’ appetite and openness for new technologies, which can make their lives better and safer. A Smart City concept, towards which any big city tends, can only start with the development of an intelligent public transport, in which you can pay for your trip with your contactless card, watch or phone. We are glad that we managed to introduce such a smart system in 16 of the largest cities in the country. Our effort towards the digitalization of Romania will continue, being one of the strategic projects of BCR,” said Dana Dima, vice-president of Retail & Private Banking BCR.

So far, the contactless payment solution has been introduced by BCR in the following cities: Sibiu, Arad, Oradea, Baia Mare, Timisoara, Iasi, Resita, Ramnicu Valcea, Pitesti, Buzau, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Ploiesti, Sighisoara, Bucharest and Botoșani.

The system implemented by BCR was built based on the operating architecture regulated by Mastercard and VISA, so that any card issued anywhere in the world under the two organizations can be used to pay for travel.