MANAMA: More than ten million shopping transactions were recorded in Bahrain last month, indicating a return of consumer confidence, shows data from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).
Numbers released by the banking regulator yesterday reveal that nearly seven out of 10 card transactions (67.7 per cent) were contactless, continuing the trend for the sixth straight month.
Purchase of products and services using credit and debit cards and mobile wallets at stores and online combined shows a jump of 55.9pc in volume to 11,146,433 in July 2021, from 7,150,035 seen in July 2020, which is another indication of the accelerated movement towards a cashless economy.
The statistics show that the value of transactions grew 39pc year-on-year to BD273.2 million (42.7pc contactless) last month compared with BD196.4m in July 2020.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19 last year, consumers have preferred to use less cash, seeking safer and cleaner payment methods, and banks in the country have responded by issuing credit and debit cards using near-field communication (NFC) technology.
Over the last 12 months, many local and international banks have also started to offer cardless withdrawals from their ATMs using the BenefitPay e-wallet, from Benefit, the kingdom’s only operator of electronic financial transactions.
The service has been made possible because of tokenisation – the process of protecting sensitive data by replacing it with an algorithmically generated number called a token.
The highest number of transactions last month was carried out in restaurants (3,487,688), followed by supermarkets (2,294,343), department stores (773,367), clothing and footwear purchases (710,766) and health services (707,701).
In terms of value, government services at BD64.3m, led the top five sectors, with restaurants at BD25.5m coming next, followed by supermarkets (BD25.3m), clothing and footwear purchases (BD17.2m) and department stores (BD15.6m).
The infographics show real-time electronic fund transfers in the kingdom jumped nearly three-fold in July 2021, marking the 13th straight month of a rising trend.
Transactions using Fawri, Fawri+ and Fawateer services, enabled by the electronic fund transfer system (EFTS), continue to see substantial growth in year-on-year and month-on-month terms.
Fawri+ is an almost real-time fund transfer service which allows individuals or entities to transfer funds of up to BD1,000 per day in less than 30 seconds; whereas Fawri is a deferred settlement fund transfer service which allows individuals or entities to transfer any amount within a few hours of the business day, and Fawateer provides real-time bill payments.
In July 2021, Fawri+ accounted for the vast majority, (89pc) of EFTS transactions, followed by Fawri and Fawateer at 6pc and 5pc respectively.
However, in terms of transaction value, Fawri was the leader at 72pc, followed by Fawri+ at 25pc and Fawateer at 3pc.
The number of transactions completed through Fawri+ last month amounted to 13,006,538, up 186.39pc from 4,541,517 in July 2020. In terms of value, Fawri+ transactions amounted to BD398.312m in July 2021, up 77.33pc from BD224.622m for the same month last year. As for Fawri, the number of transactions was up 6.32pc at 861,072 when compared with 809,907.
Transactions made through the Fawateer service amounted to 760,696, higher by 93.83pc than 392,456 in July 2020.
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