Banking & Payments Federation Ireland reports a significant acceleration in the use of contactless payments in the Irish economy during Covid-19.
Contactless payments hit a record high in Q3 2020 with more than 182m payments valued at almost €2.9bn according to the latest figures published this week by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
With a significant surge in contactless payments in recent months triggered largely by the Covid-19 pandemic, the figures show the number of contactless payments rose by 36pc year-on-year in Q3 2020 with the value of those payments up 77pc during the same period.
“We can also see that consumers are making higher-value contactless payments than before”
And while activity did see a slight dip during September, there were 2m contactless payments per day during the month of September, unchanged from August, with €31.1m spent per day, down from €31.9m a month earlier.
Contactless payments on the rise
“We have seen a significant acceleration in the use of contactless payments in year-on-year terms as consumer behaviour coupled with Covid-19 continue to reshape payment methods,” said Brian Hayes, chief executive, BPFI.
“As well as seeing a record breaking high in contactless spending this quarter, we can also see that consumers are making higher-value contactless payments than before with average contactless payment up from €12.03 in Q3 2019 to €15.69 in Q3 2020.
In addition, the number of contactless-enabled cards is on the rise with almost 5.1m debit cards and almost 1.7m credit cards in issue by the end of September 2020.
By John Kennedy (john.kennedy3@boi.com)
Published: 30 October, 2020
