Cash-back attack

Currently around 70 percent of the 13.2 million Visa cards issued in Poland are open to cash-back programs. Once the construction of a network allowing cash-back transactions is completed, Visa will launch a campaign enticing consumers to make more non-cash transactions and, simultaneously, to withdraw small amounts while doing shopping instead of using ATMs.

"We have all the elements prepared like a marketing campaign, but we cannot waste money on hitting the button before there is enough scale on the market. But we're working on it. The process is not overnight, but it is happening. The acquirers are promising to put more effort into expanding this network," says Małgorzata O'Shaughnessy, managing director of Visa Europe in Poland.

Not only are new points of sale (POS) able to offer cash-back transactions, but the number of Visa cards is also systematically rising. Last year Visa issued two million new cards in Poland and the number of transactions reached 550 million, worth some €30.9 (zł.118.9) billion, of which non-cash (non-ATM) transactions accounted for around €6 (zł.23.1) billion.

Over the 2006 financial year (September to September), the number of Visa cards in Europe grew, on average, by 8.8 percent. Poland, in comparison, saw 18.8 percent growth. The average number of POS transactions in Europe grew by 11.7 percent, while Poland saw 29-percent growth.

According to Mark Antipof, senior deputy president of Visa Europe, the number of cards and transactions will soon reach the European average.

In Europe last year every €1 in €9 of consumer spending involved a Visa card, and the number of cards grew by 8.8 percent to a total of around 321 million. The value of all transactions amounted to €1.2 (zł.4.6) billion