Payments statistics: second half of 2024

The European Central Bank (ECB) today published statistics on non-cash payments for the second half of 2024.2 The statistics comprise indicators on access to and use of payment services, payment cards and payment terminals by the public, as well as volumes and values of transactions processed through retail and large-value payment systems. This press release focuses on developments in the euro area as a whole, while statistics are also published at country level for all euro area and most non-euro area EU member states. EU and euro area aggregates are also published.³

Payment services⁴

In the second half of 2024, the total number of non-cash payment transactions⁵ in the euro area increased by 8.6% to 77.6 billion compared with the second half of 2023, with the corresponding total value rising by 3.8% to €116.9 trillion. Card payments accounted for 57% of the total number of transactions, while credit transfers accounted for 21%, direct debits for 15% and e-money payments for 6%. The remaining 1% comprised cheques, money remittances and other payment services (see annex, Table 1).