Belarus among CIS most financially literate nations

The level of financial literacy in Belarus is one of the highest in the CIS, BelTA learnt from Konstantin Golovinsky, Director for Corporate Communications Group in the CIS and South-East Europe at the company Visa.

“The level of financial literacy in Belarus is without doubt one of the highest in the region. It is definitely higher than that in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan,” Konstantin Golovinsky said. Another proof of this fact is the research conducted in July-August 2013 as part of the project implemented by Visa, the National Bank and the USAID agency.

Quantitative analysis also point to this fact. “We are guided by the key index, PV/TV, which is a ratio between the number of credit card transactions and the overall number of transactions. This indicates how often people pay with credit cards instead of using them in order to merely withdraw money from the ATM. PV/TV is Belarus is over 30%, which is one of the highest figures in our region which consists of 17 countries. Serbia boasts the same figure. In Russia PV/TV stood at 14% in mid 2013, in Ukraine 9%, in Kazakhstan 8.5% and in Azerbaijan 7%,” Konstantin Golovinsky noted.

It is clear that cards are used in Belarus as a means of payment, not only for withdrawing cash, said Konstantin Golovinsky. He also pointed out positive momentum regarding cashless payments in Belarus. “A high PV/TV level and the level of financial literacy have been achieved with the help of the regulator which has a well thought-out and purposeful strategy aimed at increasing the share of cashless payments in the economy,” the Visa representative underlined.

Jointly with the National Bank and other banks Visa continues awareness raising efforts to explain the benefits of cards as a handy instrument which helps draw up personal budget more efficiently and in some cases avoid spontaneous spending. It does not take up much space in the wallet and allows paying for goods and services abroad. A lost card can be quickly blocked.

As of 1 July 2013 cashless payments accounted for 15.7% of Belarus’ retail sales, up 2.5% from the beginning of the year. The figure rose by 1.4% in 2011 and 3.7% in 2012. There are plans to increase the share of cashless payments in the amount of public services and retail sales by 50% by 1 January 2016.