The preference for electronic financial transactions increases everyday, but the trend is to migrate to contactless payments, which will allow consumers to make their purchases 10 times faster than the traditional way.
Specialists in the subject explain that unlike the payment methods that until now are the most used in the region, contactless payments simply consist of holding a card in a payment reader to proceed with the transaction.
In Costa Rica, 36% of grocery stores and retail outlets have card payment systems, and on average they sell 27% more than those that do not have the service.
The data, which was collected between April and July of this year and is part of a study conducted by Fundes, shows that 44% of these types of businesses have bank accounts and 83% of establishments have an internet connection.
In 2017, the amount of electronic payment services provided totaled $40.510 billion, which represented about three times the value of Nicaraguan GDP.
In 2017 the value of transactions increased by 15.6% with respect to 2016, behavior explained mainly by a greater dynamism in the operations of the Automated Clearing House (ACH), as these grew by 198%, while BCN operations did so by 7.8%.
The Costa Rican company Impesa has received an undisclosed investment from the Dominican company Agrega Partners, which will now hold a 15% share.
Impesa, dedicated to creating electronic payment solutions and owner of the Moneybite system, foresees, with the injection of capital received from the Dominican company, strengthening its administrative structure and reaching 10 countries in 2018.
The draft law stipulates a maximum of $242 per movement and a cumulative amount up to $970 per month in transactions made via mobile devices.
The proposal by the Central Reserve Bank (BCR) seeks to "... regulate transactions through mobile devices. This financial service, to date, is only offered by Tigo Money for Tigo telephone customers."
Although we have not yet seen mass use of payments via mobile phones, 2012 will bring a significant acceleration of this trend.
The arrival of the cashless society has been declared in every trend list since 2005. Even though 2012 won't be the year when consumers massively give up using coins and bills for swiping their smart phones against the tills, it will be the year that major players like Google and MasterCard actively launch initiatives so we can all avoid carrying hard cash in our pockets.