Irish consumers spent almost €600 million using contactless payment in May, accounting for the highest value on record this year, research shows.
According to the latest figures from Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), on average consumers made €19.3 million worth of contactless payments per day during May, up 7% on figures in February before COVID-19 hit.
In volume terms contactless payment usage was 1.25 million, down from 1.51 million ‘taps’ per day in February, the group said.
“Now more than ever before consumers want fast, simple and secure payments and this is very much reflected in today’s figures which are showing a strong recovery in the values of contactless payments for May," said Brian Hayes, chief executive, BPFI.
Contactless Limit Increase
The figures also show an increase in the average contactless transaction which reached €15.30 in May, up from €11.92 in February.
Hayes noted, that the growth in the use of contactless payments 'is in part a result of the increase in the contactless limit to €50.'
Reopening Roadmap
With the recent acceleration of the reopening roadmap and the resulting uplift which has been seen in retail and hospitality spending in particular, BPFI said that it would expect that contactless volumes should show a recovery in the months ahead as more restrictions are lifted.
"This is further supported by research carried out by BPFI recently which shows that 92% of all adults have now used contactless payments with one third of adult using contactless as their preferred method of payment in cafes and over a quarter preferring contactless when grocery shopping,” he added.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
