Nearly nine in every ten businesses across the Maltese islands do not have a card terminal to accept Point-of-Sale (POS) payments, NSO data table in Parliament by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana reveals.

During Wednesday's plenary session, the Minister for Finance was asked to disclose how many establishments in the country do not accept POS payments, and therefore, only accept cash. This PQ was submitted by Opposition MP Graziella Attard Previ.

Minister Caruana responded that "the number of establishments that do not accept payment via point-of-sale (POS) systems, and instead rely solely on other payment methods, such as cash, varies significantly depending on the industry and the nature of the activity."

In total, according to the NSO data he submitted to substantiate this answer, 87.6% of all active enterprises do not have a card terminal to accept POS payments. This means that from the 56,640 enterprises across the Maltese islands, only 7,021 report that they have at least one card terminal to accept POS payments, while the remaining 49,619 enterprises do not have one.

This data shows that POS systems are most widespread around establishments within the food and beverage service industry and in retail trade. Nearly half (46.2%) of all active enterprises within the food and beverage service sector do not have a single card terminal for POS payments. For the retail trade industry, just over half (56.7%) of all active enterprises do not own at least one card terminal.

According to the NSO, "the scope of POS is mostly present" in these two industries plus the accommodation sector. In the accommodation sector, 83.8% of all active enterprises lack a single card terminal.

Around seven in every ten (71.7%) enterprises within the wholesale and retail trade, transport and hospitality sector do not have a card terminal either. This equates to 12,568 out of the 17,527 total active enterprises in the field.

The largest category of active enterprises in terms of total number of such businesses - relating to professional and support services - boasts 12,886 total active enterprises. From these, a staggering 12,392 (96.2%) do not have their own card terminal.

Amongst other industries, in descending order, the proportion of active enterprises without a card terminal to accept POS payments is as follows: the information and communication industry (98.0%), the construction sector (97.7%), real estate activities (97.2%), education, health and social work (92.5%), industry and utilities (92.2%), and finally, arts, services, households, and international bodies (88.6%).

In this data, an enterprise is defined as a legal unit that is VAT-registered, or MBR-registered, or self-employed (including partnerships), and which either generates turnover or has registered employment (including the owner's own employment). The total of all active enterprises corresponds with official structural business statistics for 2024.