The NBP data shows that there were 604.9 thousand working payment terminals on the Polish market in September. The number grew by approximately 20 thousand compared to June, when the number of devices was said to be 584.9 thousand, and by around 92 thousand compared to September 2016, when there were 513.2 thousand terminals on the market. Interestingly, as much as 566.5 thousand POS terminals had contactless payment functionalities in September.

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This means that the saturation of the acceptant network with contactless terminals in Poland has reached 94 percent. We are therefore very close to achieving 100 percent. This is very important for terminal operators - let me remind you that, beginning with January 1, 2018, all POS terminals in Poland should comply with payment organization regulations that require them to accept contactless transactions.

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Just like in previous quarters, the NBP has pointed out that not all contactless card friendly terminals also accept contactless smartphone transactions. You could use Android Pay at about 476 thousand terminals in September, which is approximately 90 thousand less than the total number of POS terminals that accept contactless payment cards. The central bank also indicated that customers could use the cashback service, which allows them to withdraw cash while paying for their shopping, at approximately 166.3 thousand terminals.

_{Photo: Visa}