Peru. 23% of monetary transactions are made with means of payment in this country other than cash, according to a Mastercard study conducted in 2013. If only the number of operations is considered, these means only represent 1% of the total, which means that the number of transactions using electronic means is low in our country, as indicated by the latest edition of the ASBANC Weekly, prepared by the Economic Studies area of the banking guild entitled "Means of payments other than cash and its relationship with financial inclusion".
This document indicates that only 1% of adults in Peru use electronic means of payment.
The use of electronic money would have a positive effect on the rate of financial inclusion, because the more use is given to means of payment such as credit, debit or electronic money cards, the more businesses will have the need to adapt and get out of informality.
According to the Digital Money Readiness Index – which measures how prepared countries are for digital money – Peru is ranked 60th out of 90 countries. This ranking is constructed considering four pillars: institutionality and market; technological and financial infrastructure; solutions to develop digital money; and the pre-availability of the population to adopt these means of payment. In the case of Peru, the best positioned pillar is related to financial and technological infrastructure.
The document indicates that the Peruvian retail market is not yet ready to massively accept payments with digital money. Currently, there is a low penetration of POS in the country, since the costs to implement electronic point of sale terminals fall on the merchant, who must assume the investment expenses in equipment, network, bank accounts, among others.
One way to increase this network is to decrease the cost of these terminals through programs to support small merchants. Likewise, to increase the use of digital money in the population, it is recommended to offer tax incentives to consumers and implement financial education programs, since the vast majority of Peruvians are still afraid to use credit or debit cards – and electronic money – because they do not know the characteristics of these products.
