Value of payments processed by Irish providers rises by nearly 9%

Figures from the Central Bank of Ireland show €5.5tn worth of payments were processed during the first six months of the year. 

The value of all payments processed by Irish resident payment service providers rose to €5.5tn during the first six months of this year, new data from the Central Bank of Ireland shows.

Between January and June, there were 2.3 billion payment transactions recorded by these service providers — a 2.6% increase from the second half of last year and a 23.7% increase from the same period last year when new entrants started to emerge.

This amounted to €5.5tn in payments which is a 8.9% rise from the €5.1tn recorded during the first half of 2023.

Credit transfers — which is a payment service that allows the payer to instruct the institution holding its account to transfer funds to the beneficiary — accounted for 95.7% of the total transaction value.

Spending within Ireland accounted for €2.1tn of the payments sent between January and June this year. Transfers to countries within the European Economic Area totalled €2tn.

Direct debits sent by Irish residents remains the second most popular means of payment in terms of value — accounting for €104.4bn this period. However, the volume of direct debits decreased by 1.8% compared to the same period in 2023.

The majority of direct debits were sent domestically, accounting for 94.8% of the value totals. The value of card payments increased by 1.8% from €62.8bn — during the latter half of 2023 — to €64bn.

The average value of card payments stood at €40 for domestic card payments, and €75 and €73.5 for Rest of World and other EEA countries respectively.

The use of cheques continued to decline with the value of payments via cheque dropping 10.3% to €24.2bn compared to the second half of 2023.