Georgia is taking the lead among 17 countries in Visa's Commonwealth of Independent States and South-East Europe region in terms of contactless, cashless payments, according to the company.

"Georgians appear to be very progressive in terms of adopting payment technologies and banking technologies in general," Andrei Shcherbina, Visa's director of emerging products and innovations, said, according to Financial. "It can be compared to only a very limited number of countries worldwide. Therefore, we expect for Georgia to soon become one of the leaders in cashless payment systems in the CIS&SEE region."

Transactions via payment cards have increased by more than two million as of the end of May compared to the same period last year, according to the newspaper. Citing the National Bank of Georgia, it said the total number of Visa credit and debit cards in Georgia is approximately 3.9 million.

"Georgia was the first country in the region to have launched Visa payWave contactless payments back in 2009," Shcherbina said, Financial reports. "In 2013 banks in Georgia along with merchants were actively adopting Visa contactless payments. Since then the country has become a leader in volume and number of contactless payments in the region. The Georgian market is innovative, has good perspective, and continues to demand and successfully adopt payment innovations."