Luis Bencosme, executive president for CardNet, says “the world is transforming,” but the Dominican Republic is still mostly a cash-based society. CardNet is a leading electronic payment system. He spoke during the past ClaroTec on the future of payment methods.
Bencosme said that the use of checks has stagnated. In the country that has a population of around 10 million people, at least three million people have credit cards and 4.8 million debit cards. He said payrolls are paid through accounts linked to employee debit cards.
Likewise, he said thousands among the poor have begun to enjoy the means of electronic payments through the government welfare program “Progressing with Solidarity” under the Vice Presidency of the Republic. “The way they receive the subsidies is with prepaid cards and there are 1.2 million of them in the hands of the public,” he said.
CardNet is introducing contactless payments. “I would tell you that 95% of points of sale (POS) or “verifones” use or are already prepared to accept contactless payments. The issue is that all banks have not yet issued the contactless cards,” he explained. Bencosme forecast that in three years’ time the entire country will be able to enjoy this form of payment.
The CardNet executive maintained that the country lags in electronic commerce. But he said this is the norm for the region. “If you add up all of Latin America, only 2.6% of the transactions that occur in retail consumption are done in e-commerce,” he said.
Bencosme said that payment schemes require authentication mechanisms that the industry has not had until recently and this has hindered progress in this area. Nevertheless, he said cell phone payment schemes are gradually gaining acceptance locally. One is MONI, an application that allows you to pay using your cell phone in establishments affiliated to CardNET.
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El Dinero
14 November 2019