Record high of almost €17.9 billion spent using contactless payments in 2022

James Cox

Almost €17.9 billion in contactless payments were made in 2022, the highest level recorded since 2016 and a jump of 31.4 per cent on 2021.

Meanwhile, online and mobile banking payments continued to surge with volumes doubling between 2006 and 2022, according to the latest Payments Monitor Q4 2022 from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).

The last quarter of 2022 saw three million contactless payments per day, valued at €53 million, making this the highest daily contactless spend in any quarter since the data series began in 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 (2.92) the 2019 level.

The monitor also shows that the volume of online and mobile banking payments (digital banking) continued to grow by 5 per cent year-on-year in Q4 2022 to 36.7 million. The represents the highest quarterly volume since that data series began in 2016.

Commenting on the figures, Gillian Byrne, head of payments BPFI, said: “Today’s report demonstrates the continued growth in consumer reliance on contactless payments with an increase in volume of 27.2 per cent on an annual basis to almost 1.1 billion transactions. Contactless payments more than doubled since 2019 to 1.1 billion with the value of transactions almost treble (2.92) the 2019 level.

“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 per cent. This is a continuation of the trend seen in recent years and figures reveal that volumes have more than doubled to 183 million since 2016 when there were only 71 million transactions.”

The publication of today’s monitor coincides with the hosting of BPFI’s National Payments Conference which is being opened by EU Commissioner for Financial Services Mairéad McGuinness.

Bringing together industry experts and policy makers, the event will "reflect on the significance of the figures published today in the context of the major forces bringing change to the Irish payments landscape".

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.