OTP Bank: Almost half of consumers prefer digital payment methods

The survey of 500 Hungarian micro, small and medium-sized companies, conducted by Magyar Target Pulzus Media Kutato, found that 86 percent of businesses offering digital payments had already offered customers the option of paying by bank transfer or by credit or debit card before the law making digital payments mandatory in certain business segments entered into force.

While most companies did not notice a major change, 12 percent said they had seen a rise in the number of customers, and another 12 percent said customers were buying more on average.

Companies with a cash-only policy, however, faced several problems, with one-third of them saying they have had customers who did not have enough cash on them to pay for their purchase, and more than a third said there have been times when they did not have enough change for a transaction.

OTP said the number of POS terminals among its clients was up almost 9 percent in the first quarter, and the number of businesses using the SimplePay payment platform increased by around 30 percent compared with the same period last year.