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Cashless payments are gaining wider traction in Bahrain, with the volume of point of sale (POS) transactions posting significant growth over the past several months, according to a new report.
The volume of POS transactions across the kingdom grew by 49.8% to 125.5 million in 2021, the new report released by the Bahrain Central Bank on Thursday, showed. The total value of such payments amounted to BD3.2 billion ($8.5 billion) during the same period, posting a yearly growth of 34.6%.
Out of the total POS transactions, 65.6% were contactless payments. In terms of value, contactless payments accounted for 39.8% of the POS transactions.
The central bank report includes a comprehensive study of the development of payment and settlement services in the kingdom’s banking sector in recent years.
In the report, the central bank noted that the payment landscape of Bahrain has been undergoing substantial transition over the years
“The growth of digital payments has been on a steady rise in recent years. It has been supported by the proliferation of new technologies along with changes in consumer behaviour,” the report said.
It said that the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a “key catalyst” for the accelerated adoption of digital payments. However, it pointed out that the “idea of non-tangible financial transactions” goes a long way back.
The consumers, too, have become more comfortable with digital payments, including contactless shopping, as well as remote delivery of products and services.
“For such a demographic, the digital payment landscape provided a fertile ground for growth – not only regionally and globally but also here in Bahrain,” the report said.
Non-cash transactions volumes in the Middle East and Africa region grew by 7.8% in 2020 compared to 2019. The growth is higher than in Latin America (up 3%), North America (2%0 and Europe (3.3%). In the Asia-Pacific region, non-cash transactions volume went up 16.6% during the same period.
(Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria )
