ALMOST €17.9 BILLION in contactless payments were made in 2022, the highest level recorded since 2016 and a jump of 31.4% from 2021.

Online and mobile banking payments continued to rise 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 an average of €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 the 2019 level.

The Monitor also shows that the volume of online and mobile banking payments (digital banking) continued to grow by 5% year on year in Q4 2022 to 36.7 million.

This represents the highest quarterly volume since that data series began in 2016.

Commenting on the figures, the head of payments at BPFI, Gillian Byrne, said:

“Today’s report demonstrates the continued growth in consumer reliance on contactless payments with an increase in volume of 27.2% 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 trebble 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%.

“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.”