Online and mobile banking payments hit record high, figures show

By Michelle Devane, PA

Consumers’ use of digital banking has hit a record high as contactless payments continue to surge, new figures show.

According to the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), online and mobile banking volumes grew by almost 12 per cent to 36 million payments in the second quarter of this year to reach the highest level since the data series began six years ago.

The data also shows there were €49 million worth of contactless payments per day between the start of April and the end of June this year, the highest daily spend in any quarter since the data series began.

BPFI head of payments Gillian Byrne said: “The trend continues, our latest figures show online and mobile banking (digital banking) payments continued to grow strongly in Q2 2022 with volumes growing by 11.7 per cent year-on-year to 36 million payments.

“This was the highest level recorded since BPFI began collecting this data in 2016.

“It was also the first time that digital banking payments outnumbered direct debit payments, which stood at €34.9 million.

“Cheque payments meanwhile fell by 2.6 per cent year-on-year to €4.8 million, about half the volume when compared to the same period in 2018.”

Contactless

The report also showed quarterly contactless payment volumes rose by 34 per cent year-on-year to €268.5 million, or €3 million payments per day, in the second quarter of this year.

Ms Byrne said the value of contactless payments rose by 40 per cent to more than €4.5 billion in the quarter, or €49 million per day.

“This was the highest daily contactless spend in any quarter since the data series began in 2016,” she said.

“The report also shows that the average contactless payment value increased to €16.61, from €15.96 a year earlier.

“It is also interesting to see that May 2022 set a new record for monthly contactless volumes, with 93.7 million transactions, but June 2022 set a record for daily contactless volumes with 3.04 million payments per day.

“Combining Central Bank of Ireland and BPFI figures, it has become clear that contactless is increasing its penetration of card payments.”

Almost two-thirds of card payment volumes were contactless in the three months to the end of June, the highest proportion on record and up from 51 per cent a year earlier.

Similarly, almost 40 per cent of the value of payments at physical points of sale were contactless, up from 35 per cent in the same period last year.