Trends in the Market of Payment Instruments in Poland on the Background of Other European Union Countries in the Years 2005–2015 (Tendencje zmian na rynku instrumentow platniczych w Polsce na tle pozostalych krajow Unii Europejskiej w latach 2005–2015)

The virtualization of money triggered by the unprecedented progress in the field of electronic collection, processing and transmission of information has resulted in significant changes in systems of payment through banks and other financial institutions. The paper-based payment system, based on the exchange of paper documents, turns out to be inadequate to the increasingly dominant electronic (virtual) money economy. Hence, in recent years it has been of utmost importance to provide the public with access to modern payment instruments and to take into account the need to adapt the Polish payment infrastructure to the requirements of the modern consumer. The most efficient type of settlement are non-cash bank electronic settlements. The aim of the paper is to analyze the trend of the non-cash trade in Poland and to evaluate trends in the payment instruments market in Poland against the rest of the EU.