THE POPULARITY of non-cash payment for goods and services through point-of-sale (POS) terminals in Slovakia increased last year.
The volume of transactions made through POS terminals administered by the Slovak Authorisation Centre (ACS) was Sk6 billion in 2001, a growth of Sk2.6 billion, or 77 per cent, from the Sk3.4 billion recorded in 2000. The ACS authorised 10.7 million transactions through POS terminals last year.
The volume of transactions carried out through automatic teller machines (ATM) administered by the ACS was Sk46.5 billion, a growth of Sk6.2 billion (15 per cent) from 2000. The number of ATM transactions reached almost 44 million.
ACS, a service company for commercial banks, has operated on the market since June 1994. It registered 1.03 million bank cards in late 2001. During the past year 2,000 POS terminals have been connected to the ACS authorisation centre for an aggregate number of 6,646.
The majority shareholder in ACS is Telenor, holding 51 per cent.
