The Market of Non-cash Payments in Poland on the Background of the European Union—a Comparative Analysis

The main aim of the paper is the comparative analysis of Polish cashless payments on the background of European Union payment statistics. The primary finding involves the scale of gap between Poland and EU in terms of direct credit and direct debit instruments. Despite the overwhelming popularity of direct credit on the domestic market, its usage especially among individuals is still very moderate situating Poland at the bottom of 27 EU countries. On the other hand, direct credit payments play a sole role in non-cash payments ordered on the basis of bank accounts as the importance of direct debit is extremely limited. As far as card payments are concerned, it should be emphasized the dynamic growth of volume issued cards as well as the value of transactions. However, contrary to developed EU card markets, the leading role of debit card in Poland signals still initial state of long-term development trends in domestic market. Furthermore, the fast growing importance of credit cards Poland has been halted towards the end of 2010 under the pressure of growing credit risk exposure in form of increasing ratio of non-performing credits extended within credit card.