Consumers’ use of digital banking has hit a record high as contactless payments continue to surge, new figures show.
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, According to the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
It is the first time that digital banking payments outnumbered direct debit payments, which stood at 34.9 million.
The data also reveals that there were €49 million worth of contactless payments per day in the second quarter of the year, the highest daily spend in any quarter since the current series of records began.
In the second quarter of the year, contactless payments accounted for 57.3% of card payment volumes and 39.2% of the value of payments made at physical points of sale.
“The value of contactless payments rose by 40% to more than €4.5 billion,” said Gillian Byrne, Head of Payments at BPFI.
“Cheque payments meanwhile fell by 2.6% year on year to 4.8 million, about half the volume when compared to the same period in 2018.”