Rising use of contactless not having negative effect on cash withdrawals

The rising popularity of contactless payments is not having a negative effect on cash withdrawals.

Consumers in Ireland spent around €4.4billion in contactless payments last year with approximately €1.1 million payments made each day.

Meanwhile, the average amount withdrawn from ATM's rose significantly to €133.

Richard Walsh from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland explains what is driving the growth of contactless payments:

"There's now wide availability of contactless cards, so most bank issued cards now have contact capability, and then a very wide acceptance network.

"I think people are becoming more comfortable with the use and convenience and how it works and now we are seeing quite a few people who are actually no longer taking cash with them. They just use contactless cards for their day-to-day spend."