The value of contactless payments made in Ireland last year, surged to €17.9 billion as Irish consumers returned to shops, bars and restaurants in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
It was the highest level recorded since Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) began its data series in 2016. According to figures from BPFI’s latest Payments Monitor Q4 2022, contactless payments jumped 31.4% on 2021, while online and mobile banking payments continued to surge with volumes doubling between 2016 and 2022.
Commenting on the figures, Gillian Byrne, Head of Payments, BPFI said: “Today’s report demonstrates the continued growth in consumer reliance on contactless payments.”
She added, “We also continue to see a surge in mobile and online banking payments, with today’s report showing that on an annual basis, volumes have risen by 9.4%. This is a continuation of the trend seen in recent years and figures reveal that volumes have more than doubled to 143 million, since 2016, when there were only 71 million transactions.”
In particular, the last quarter of 2022 showed the most impressive growth with three million contactless payments made per day valued at €53 million. This makes it the highest daily contactless spend in any quarter, since 2016. On an annual basis, the number of contactless payments had more than doubled since 2019 to 1.1 billion, while the value was almost three times the the 2019 level at 2.92 billion.
The publication of the Monitor coincides with the hosting of BPFI’s National Payments Conference which is being opened by EU Commissioner for Financial Services Mairéad McGuinness.
In addition to examining the latest payments developments at EU level including the digital euro and Instant Payments, the conference will also explore the development of tailored services for customers using payment data as well as financial crime and the latest fraud trends.
