July sees record contactless payments by consumers

The value of the average contactless payment increased to €16.21.

Contactless payments by Irish consumers hit a new daily record in July with an average of 2.5 billion payments made per day worth €40.5m.

New figures from the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) show July payment volumes rose by 29% year on year to 77.5 million, while the value of contactless rose by 33.7% to almost €1.3bn. The value of the average payment increased to €16.21, from €15.63 a year earlier.

A separate report from the BPFI also shows that online and mobile banking payments continued to grow strongly in the second quarter of the year as Covid-19 restrictions were eased. Payments made online and by mobile phones grew by 15.3% year on year to 32.2 million payments. 

While the payment card is by far the most frequently used payment instrument, digital banking transfer volumes grew by 15.3% year on year to 32.2 million payments.

Cheque payments remained at historically low levels volumes of 2.1%.