Online banking payments up by 30% since 2006

The amount of payments made online in Ireland has risen by almost 30% since 2006, during which time the use of cheques declined by half.

The increasing move away from traditional forms of payment towards online banking has been brought into sharp focus in the past week, in the wake of the Ulster Bank debacle.

According to the Irish Payments Services Organisation (IPSO), the use of cheques in Ireland peaked in 2005 at almost 132m. Since then, the number has fallen by 36% to just over 84m last year.