site.btaPayment Service Provider Borica Logs Over 933,000 Card Transactions Worth Nearly EUR 42m in First 48 Hours after Euro Adoption

More than 933,000 card payments at POS terminals and transactions at ATMs worth almost EUR 42 million were made in Bulgaria on January 1-2, payment service provider Borica said on Saturday.

The figures covered the first 48 hours after Bulgaria joined the eurozone and adopted the euro as its national currency. Cashless payments accounted for the majority by volume (over 86%), while ATM transactions (withdrawals and deposits) accounted for the majority by value (over 52%).

In the first 48 hours, the system processed more than 804,000 POS transactions totalling over EUR 20 million, with an average value of nearly EUR 25 per payment. ATM withdrawals accounted for more than 125,000 transactions totalling over EUR 18 million, with an average of EUR 144 per withdrawal. ATM deposits totalled almost 3,500 transactions worth nearly EUR 3.8 million, with an average of close to EUR 1,100 per deposit.

The average activity over the period was nearly 19,446 transactions per hour (about 324 transactions per minute), or 5.4 transactions per second, meaning more than five card transactions were processed every second.

Data from the first 48 hours sent a clear signal that cashless payment had become a basic expectation rather than an added extra, Borica said. With POS payments accounting for more than 86% of transactions by number, merchants that do not offer a cashless option are effectively excluding themselves from the most active flow of customers and purchases in the new currency environment.

Thanks to the coordinated efforts of BORICA’s team, the banks, and other financial sector participants, Bulgaria entered the eurozone with a fully operational, widely used, and technologically advanced card and payments infrastructure that successfully withstood the first major stress test of euro transactions during the initial 48 hours of operations, the company said in a press release.

The first successful euro withdrawal in Bulgaria was recorded at 00.20 am, Borica said on January 1. The transaction was carried out at an ATM in the seaside resort of Sunny Beach. The company reported that at 00:03 a.m. the first successful euro-denominated transaction via BORICA’s infrastructure was completed using SoftPOS in Sofia, and at 00:04:55 a successful euro-denominated donation was processed via a virtual POS terminal.

On January 1, 2026, Bulgaria officially switched to its new national currency, the euro.