European Central Bank (ECB) has conducted “Study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area (SPACE) 2022”, revealing the growth of contactless card payments in the EU
ECB survey of consumer payment habits revealed that more than six in ten (62%) card payments made at POS across the eurozone are now contactless, compared to 41% in 2019.
Besides, contactless card payments now account for half of all in-store card transaction values in the EU, up from 27% in 2019. In some countries, that proportion significantly rises: 74% in Slovenia, 75% in Slovakia and 81% in Cyprus.
Nevertheless cash was still the king of last year transactions. It was the most frequently used payment method at the POS in the euro area, accounting for 59% of all transactions. However, the dominance of cash saw significant decline from 79% in 2016 and 72% in 2019. Those who reported using cash less often stated that paying electronically has become more convenient.
Meanwhile, card payments were used in 34% of POS transactions, up from 19% in 2016 and 25% in 2019. While cash was most frequently used for small value payments, for payments over €50, cards were the most frequently used method.
The proportion of POS transactions made using a mobile app has also risen from less than 1% to 3% by volume and from 1% to 4% by value since 2019.
As for the P2P payments, cash dominated in 73% of the total payments, covering 59% in terms of value. At the same time, the share of cashless payment means, particularly mobile phone apps, increased between 2019 and 2022, from 3% to 10%, and rose from 4% to 11% in terms of value.
Finally, the share of online payments in non-recurring payments increased from 6% in 2019 to 17% in 2022.
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