Visa this week has published findings from its Consumer Payment Attitudes Study, which examines the perceptions, attitudes and behaviours Myanmar people have towards payment and emerging payment methods. It was based on face-to-face interviews of 504 people across Yangon, Pathein, Mandalay and Magway last September.

The report found Myanmar people are more interested in getting financial products than last year. They also continued to have improved perceptions towards banks on safety, trust and facilitating payments.

Forty-one percent of respondents said they now own bank accounts, compared to 34pc last year. Further to this, 70pc of those surveyed who are currently without a bank account plan to open one this year.

It also found a significant increase in use and interest in owning payment cards, such as prepaid and credit cards. Currently, 26pc of people surveyed use or own payment cards, compared to only 3pc in the previous year. Seven in 10 people said they plan to own payment cards compared to only two in ten people in the previous year.

The major motivators to getting a payment card are “to be in tune with the times” and “to access a simpler form of payment”. Respondents also cited that it is safer to carry cards than large amounts of cash and it’s more convenient as they would not have to deal with small change.

Attitudes towards banks also continued to improve. Four in five people surveyed (82pc) said that they agreed that banks are safe and secure, compared to 68pc from the preceding year. A further 77pc said banks are a convenient way of managing their personal finances.

Even though Myanmar people rely heavily on cash for daily transactions – one in four people surveyed have tried going cashless and all of the people surveyed believed Myanmar has the potential to become a cashless society within the next 15 years or less.

Myanmar people are also interested in using emerging forms of payment, such as contactless payments – whereby people can make payments by tapping their payment card or phone on point of sales terminal, instead of swiping or inserting their cards. Nearly half of the respondents said they would like to use this model of payment.

Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/rising-interest-financial-products-visa.html