At the end of 2014, payment cards were accepted at 15 million EFTPOS terminals in 10 million outlets in Europe.

The number of terminals in western Europe increased at a modest rate of 4 percent in four years, while terminals in central and eastern Europe increased at a much more aggressive average rate of 18 percent, according to "Payment Cards Issuing and Acquiring Europe 2016," from RBR.

In CEE markets, RBR found that growth in the number of terminals has been driven by a combination of government legislation, increased card penetration, improving financial literacy and a greater tendency to pay by card.

The report suggests that new EC regulation on interchange fees, which came into effect in December 2015, will have a positive effect on merchant acceptance.

The regulation caps domestic interchange fees at 0.2 percent for debit cards and 0.3 percent for credit cards, a significant decrease in many markets.

For many merchants, the follow-on effect for merchant service charges will create a positive business case for installing terminals.

Mobile POS solutions are emerging as an increasingly popular option, especially for merchants with lower card volumes. Two major Russian banks and one Bulgarian bank are promoting mPOS schemes.

MPOS solutions are also considered to have potential in some western European markets.

RBR concludes that the European market for EFTPOS terminals is far from saturated and that payment card acceptance will continue to expand across the region for some time to come.