1.45 payments cards per EU citizen – European Central Bank data

September 13, 2010 – The European Central Bank (ECB) has today published the 2009 statistics on payments, which comprise indicators on access to and use of payment instruments and terminals by the public, as well as volumes and values of transactions processed through payment systems. Statistics have been published for each EU Member State, in addition to EU and euro area aggregates, and comparative statistics.

The main findings of the 2009 statistics on payments are the following:

• The total number of non-cash payments in the EU, using all types of instruments, increased by over 4% to €82 billion in 2009 compared with the previous year. Card payments accounted for nearly 40% of all transactions, while credit transfers and direct debits accounted in equal shares for most of the remainder (over 26% each).
• The corresponding total value of non-cash payments in the EU decreased by almost 16% to €227 trillion, resulting in a further decline – of almost 20% – in the average value per transaction, to €2,771. Credit transfers accounted for almost 90% of the total value, while the remainder was generated primarily by direct debits (7%) and cheques (slightly below 3%).
• The total number of payment cards in the EU was stable compared with 2008, at just under 726 million. This represented around 1.45 payment cards per EU citizen.
• The number of automated teller machines (ATMs) available to the public increased by 2% to over 430,000 in 2009 compared with the previous year. This means that by the end of 2009 there were about 870 ATMs per million inhabitants in the EU.

Read the full statement here.