The latest contactless payments figures published today by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) showed that some 1.6 million contactless payments were made per day in February 2021, valued at €26.2 million.
The new figures revealed a total of 46.2 million contactless payments were made over the course of the month, worth over €733 million.
According to BPFI that was an increase of 6.5% in volume terms on the same time last year and a substantial jump of 42% in value terms over the same period.
"The dramatic increase we have seen in the total value of contactless in the year to February highlights the impact of the higher transaction limit of €50 that was introduced last April," said Brian Hayes, chief executive, BPFI.
"As a result of this change we can see the average payment value rose from €11.92 in February 2020 to €15.88 a year later,” he added.
Daily Trends
Looking at the trends in daily contactless payments there was an increase to 1.6 million payments valued at €26.2 million per day in February 2021, up from 1.5 million payments valued at €18 million a year earlier.
Furthermore, contactless payments accounted for an estimated one-third of the value of payments at the point of sale or in-store, the group said.
Hayes noted, "The increases we have seen both in terms of the daily and monthly trends in the year to February once again highlights the popularity and growth in contactless payments particularly when you consider that the country has been in the midst of a level 5 lockdown this February compared to a year ago when we were still living free of Covid restrictions of any sort."
"This underlines the ongoing shift from cash to digital and the fundamental change in people’s behaviour which will undoubtedly continue beyond the current pandemic,” he added.
© 2021 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign up to subscribe to Checkout.
