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Share of cashless payments in Russia hits 73% despite failure of foreign payment systems

The research was triggered by reports of a failure in the operations of the Huawei Pay payment application as its users, who hold UnionPay cards, found they were unable to pay for purchases with a smartphone or smartwatch

YEKATERINBURG, March 28. /TASS/. The percentage of cashless payments in Russia climbed from 62% to 73% following reports of failed and suspended operations for foreign payment systems in the country. A shift back to cash payments did not occur due to the wide range of domestic alternatives, according to a research study conducted for the Kontur.Market cash register service of the system of services for easing the operations of small and mid-sized businesses, a copy of which was obtained by TASS.

Analysts studied receipts issued nationwide on March 1-15, 2024, and compared them against similar periods in 2023 and 2022, with a total 235 receipts examined. The research was triggered by reports of a failure in the operations of the Huawei Pay payment application as its users, who hold UnionPay cards, found they were unable to pay for purchases with a smartphone or smartwatch.

"The exits of Visa and Mastercard [from the Russian market] and the recent failure of Huawei Pay were not followed by a mass shift to cash payments due to the fact that Russian [consumers] were offered domestic alternatives, such as payments with Mir cards, the Fast payments system, applications of SBP Pay and Mir Pay. Those options caught on, which is why the number of non-cash payments is rising," Kontur.Market analyst Darya Zhigalina was quoted as saying in the research report.

In early February 2022, before foreign payment systems announced the suspension of their Russian operations, the share of cashless payments was 62%. In March, it declined to 59% with concerns by Visa and Mastercard users that their cards would stop working due to sanctions driving the decline. Moreover, holders of such cards no longer had the option of paying for purchases through Apple Pay and Google Pay apps, so consumers withdrew cash and used it to pay at stores, according to the research.

The share of cashless payments exceeded pre-crisis levels already in March 2023, having reached 67%. In 2024, the number of non-cash payments has continued to grow, with their percentage of all payments having already reached 73%.

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