Eurozone citizens prefer to pay by card as the number of ATMs continues to decline

The European Central Bank (ECB) reports that the number of non-cash payments in the euro area rose by 8.6% year-on-year in the second half of 2024, reaching 77.6 billion payments.

The total value of these payments was €116.9 billion, 3.8% more than in the second half of 2023.

Card payments accounted for 57% of all non-cash payments in the euro area, transfers for 21%, direct debits for 15%, and e-money payments for 6%.

Contactless card payments increased by 15.5% year-on-year in the second half of 2024, reaching 29.5 billion payments. Their value increased by 15.1% , to €0.8 trillion, the ECB added.

In Spain, card payments accounted for 67.6% of the total number of transactions in the second half of 2024 (+0.3 percentage points compared to the second half of 2023), and transfers accounted for 16.9% (+0.6 percentage points).

Direct debits represented 12.5% of total payments in Spain (down 1 percentage point), and electronic money accounted for 1.6% (up 0.2 percentage points), according to ECB figures. Card payments are the preferred payment method in all eurozone countries.

Lithuania has the highest percentage of card payments (72.9% of total transactions). Germany has the highest percentage of direct debits (32% of total transactions). Each euro area resident has 2.1 payment cards.

The number of payment cards in circulation increased by 8.2% year-on-year in the second half of last year, reaching 750 million, representing 2.1 payment cards for every eurozone resident. The average value of each card payment was €39.

The number of ATMs in the euro area fell by 3.1% year-on-year to 253,700 at the end of the second half of 2024. Of these, 33% accepted contactless transactions.

The number of point-of-sale terminals increased by 7.9% to 20.7 million at the end of the second half of 2024, compared to the previous year.

Of these point-of-sale terminals, which are electronic devices used to process credit or debit card payments or contactless methods in stores, 92% accepted contactless transactions.

Retail payment systems processed 56.1 billion transactions in the second half of last year, valued at €26.4 trillion.

There are 34 retail payment systems located in the euro area, which vary greatly in the type, size, and geographic scope of the transactions they process.

The largest retail payment systems in the euro area are the Mastercard Clearing Management System (MCMS), STEP2 operated by EBA CLEARING, and CORE (France). Retail payments are processed in Spain through the Sistema de Tarjetas y Medios de Pago (STMP) and the Sistema Nacional de Compensación Electrónica (SNCE).