Payment Statistics Quarterly

Last updated: 13 May 2026

The amended Payment Statistics Regulation (ECB/2020/59) introduced in 2022 provides a more granular approach to reporting requirements, which allows Central Banks to have a greater perspective on developments in retail payments domestically and more generally in Europe. Payment transactions reported in the Payment Statistics Quarterly (PSQ) by payment services providers relate to non-cash payments by non-monetary financial institutions which include credit transfers, direct debits, card based payment transactions, E-money transactions and cheques.

Total Value of Payments amounted to €12.16 Trillion in 2025

• During 2025, 4.96 billion payment transactions were recorded by Irish resident payment service providers (PSPs), representing an 8.8 per cent increase from 4.56 billion in 2024. Card payments and credit transfers drove this growth, accounting for 74 per cent and 25.2 per cent of the increase respectively. 
• The value of total payments reached €12.16 trillion, a 2.3 per cent increase from €11.89 trillion in 2024 (Chart 1). The number of transactions grew faster than their total value, indicating a shift towards more frequent, lower-value payments using digital channels.

Chart 1:  Total Value of Payment Transactions (sent)

• Domestic payments accounted for 3.46 billion transactions (69.6 per cent of overall volume) valued at €4.76 trillion (39.2 per cent of overall value) in 2025. Despite domestic transaction volume increasing by 8.0 per cent from 3.20 billion in 2024, the corresponding value declined by 1.5 per cent from €4.83 trillion. This decline was primarily driven by a 2.2 per cent decrease in domestic credit transfer values compared to 2024.
• Cross-border payments to other EEA countries accounted for 1.02 billion transactions valued at €3.22 trillion in 2025.   Both volume and value exhibited strong annual growth, with volume increasing by 9.9 per cent from 931.32 million transactions and value increasing by 10.5 per cent from €2.92 trillion in 2024¹. 
• Cross-border payments outside the EEA (those countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA)) accounted for 484.48 million transactions valued at €4.17 trillion in 2025. This represents a 12.2 per cent increase in volume from 431.61 million transactions and a modest 0.9 per cent increase in value from €4.13 trillion in 2024.  
• The United Kingdom dominated cross-border outside EEA payments with €2.75 trillion and 235.68 million transactions (65.9% of value, 48.6% of volume), followed by the United States with €983.12 billion and 49.69 million transactions (23.6% of value, 10.3% of volume), and Canada with €53.57 billion and 9.88 million transactions (1.3% of value, 2.0% of volume). Together, these three countries accounted for 90.8% of total cross-border outside EEA value and 63.3% of total volume, highlighting the significant concentration of international payment activity with these major economies.
• In line with past trends, credit transfers remain the dominant payment method, accounting for 95.5 per cent (€11.60 trillion) of total transaction value in 2025. Direct debits represent the next largest share at 1.9 per cent (€235.51 billion), followed by card payments at 1.5 per cent (€186.85 billion). E-money payments and cheques collectively account for 1.1 per cent of total value, comprising €82.19 billion and €47.58 billion respectively (Chart 2).

Chart 2:  Total Value of Payment Transactions (sent) in 2025 by Payment method

Source: CBI Payment Statistics Quarterly return

Credit Transfers Reach €11.6 Trillion: Strong Growth in Payments to Other EEA Countries

• In 2025, Irish PSPs recorded a total of 1.04 billion credit transfers, representing a 10.5 per cent year-on-year increase from 944.36 million in 2024. Growth was evident across all regions, with domestic credit transfers increasing by 8.5 per cent or 52.60 million to 668.98 million, transfers to other EEA countries rising by 13.3 per cent or 33.87 million to 289.0 million, and transfers outside the EEA showing the strongest year-on-year growth at 19.7 per cent or 14.36 million to 87.23 million.
• The value of credit transfers reached €11.60 trillion in 2025, representing a 2.0 per cent year-on-year increase from €11.38 trillion in 2024. However, annual growth differed significantly by region. Domestic credit transfers fell by 2.2 per cent (€99.01 billion) to €4.38 trillion, reflecting a shift towards smaller-value payments despite higher transaction volumes. In contrast, transfers to other EEA countries increased by 10.6 per cent (€300.99 billion) to €3.14 trillion, whilst transfers outside the EEA rose modestly by 0.6 per cent (€25.97) to €4.09 trillion.
• In line to the past trends electronic transfers are the most prevalent method of credit transfers accounting for 98.9 per cent and 98.8 of total credit transfers (sent) volume and of the value in 2025. This represents 1.03 billion in volume and €11.46 trillion in value. Within electronic transfers, online payments represented nearly 99 per cent of both volume and value of payments.

Direct Debits (sent) Amount to €235.51 Billion in 2025

• The number of direct debit transactions grew by 10.7 per cent to 204.43 million in 2025 from 184.75 million in 2024. Correspondingly, the value increased by 7.5 per cent to €235.51 billion from €219.17 billion in 2024.
• The increase in direct debit volume was primarily driven by cross-border transactions to other EEA countries, which rose by 36.6 per cent to 53.25 million in 2025. This exceptional growth was mainly attributed to a re-interpretation and re-classification of payment services to direct debits by one of the major firms from Q1 2025.
• In value and volume terms, majority of direct debits (sent) occur domestically as they are typically used for recurring payments such as utility bills, subscriptions or regular premium payments. Domestic direct debits accounted for 150.62 million transactions (73.7 per cent of total volume) in 2025, representing a 3.4 per cent increase from 145.64 million in 2024. The corresponding value reached €222.95 billion (94.7 per cent of total value), a 7.1 per cent increase from €208.19 billion in 2024.
• The noticeable annual growth in domestic direct debit value compared to volume could partly reflects the inflation in key direct debit categories. According to the Health Insurance Authority (HIA) Q4 2025 Market Bulletin, health insurance premiums increased by 9 per cent through the course of the year, whilst the Central Statistics Office Consumer Price Index for December 2025 recorded utility and local charges rising by 3.8 per cent and electricity to 4.7 per cent annually. 

Card Payments: Robust Growth in Both Transaction Volume and Spending 

• Card payments showed a robust growth in 2025, with total volume reaching 3.30 billion transactions, representing a 9.8 per cent increase from 3.01 billion transactions in 2024. The corresponding value of card payments reached €186.85 billion, a 23.0 per cent increase from €151.93 billion in 2024, indicating a strong development in both transaction volume and values.
• Domestic expenditure dominated the card payment ecosystem in Ireland, with 2.57 billion transactions valued at €109.62 billion, representing 77.8 per cent of total volume and 58.7 per cent of total value. Year-on-year, domestic payments increased by 7.9 per cent in volume (187.86 million transactions) and 14.8 per cent in value (€14.13 billion). The average domestic card payment rose to €42.69 per transaction in 2025, up 6.4 per cent from €40.13 in 2024.
• Card payments initiated electronically represented 98.8 per cent of total card transaction volume at 3.26 billion and 92.94 per cent of total value at €173.66 billion². Within this electronic total, Point of Sale (POS) payments accounted for 2.26 billion transactions (69.2 per cent of electronic volume) valued at €66.93 billion (38.5 per cent of electronic value), whilst online payments comprised 1.00 billion transactions (30.8 per cent of electronic volume) valued at €106.73 billion (61.5 per cent of electronic value).
• Year-on-year, online payments surged by 18.1 per cent in volume (153.77million transactions) and 35.5 per cent in value (€27.98 billion), significantly outpacing POS payment growth of 6.8 per cent in volume (143.91 million transactions) and 6.2 per cent in value (€3.88 billion). This stark divergence exhibits accelerating e-commerce adoption.
• The average value of electronic card payments differed significantly between online and point of sale channels, as well as by region. Domestically, online payments averaged at €78.07 per transaction in Q4 2025 compared to POS at €29.83, reflecting higher-value online purchases. 
• Cross-border online payments showed substantially higher average values, with other EEA online averaging €126.58 and outside EEA online averaging €147.88 per transaction in Q4-2025.  This increase in average value from Q2-2024 is due to a one-off reporting adjustment, as one major firm's client moved from pre-funded e-money to card payments, rather than real growth in cross-border transactions (Chart 3). Conversely, cross-border POS payments remained relatively modest, with other EEA POS averaging €41.34 and outside EEA POS averaging €37.44 per transaction in Q4-2025. 

Chart 3: Average value of Online Card Payments by Value, broken down by region

E-Money Payments 2025: Cross-Border Dominance amid Overall Decline

• In 2025, the total volume and value of e-money payments declined, totalling 399.83 million transactions valued at €82.19 billion. This represents a 3.6 per cent decline in volume from 414.79 million transactions in 2024 and a 6.0 per cent decrease in value from €87.44 billion in 2024. The decline was primarily attributed to the reclassification of payment services from e-money to card payments following a change in one of the major firms' clients' business model.
• E-money payments are predominantly used in cross-border transactions, accounting for 343.18 million transactions (85.8 per cent of total volume) valued at €73.92 billion (89.9 per cent of total value) in 2025. Specifically, other EEA countries accounted for 263.40 million transactions (65.9 per cent of total e-money volume), whilst countries outside the EEA recorded 79.78 million transactions (20.0 per cent of total e-money volume). In value terms, €46.32 billion (56.4 per cent of total value) of e-money transfers were sent to countries outside the EEA, whilst €27.60 billion (33.6 per cent) were directed to other EEA countries.
• Year-on-year, cross-border e-money transfers to other EEA countries declined by 7.6 per cent in volume (21.65 million transactions) and 22.7 per cent in value (€8.12 billion). Similarly, e-money transfers to countries outside the EEA declined by 5.6 per cent in volume (4.71 million transactions), however the corresponding value of payments increased by 3.6 per cent (€1.61 billion).
• Domestic e-money transfers accounted for 56.64 million transactions (14.2 per cent of total volume) valued at €8.28 billion (10.1 per cent of total value). Exceptionally, this represents a significant 25.2 per cent increase in volume from 45.25 million and an 18.1 per cent increase in value from €7.01 billion compared to 2024.

Cheque usage continues to Decline

• From Q1-2025 to Q4-2025, around 11.54 million payments were made using cheques valued at €47.58 billion. In comparison to 2024, the volume and value of cheques continued to decline, dropping by 12.5 per cent (1.65 million transactions) and 4.8 per cent (€2.39 billion) respectively.
• In volume terms, domestic cheques accounted for 11.37 million transactions (98.5 per cent of total volume), representing a 12.5 per cent decline from 12.98 million in 2024. In value terms, domestic cheques represented 99.3 per cent of total cheque value at €47.25 billion, declining by 4.6 per cent from €49.52 billion in 2024.
• Cross-border cheque payments declined more significantly, with other EEA cheques falling by 47.5 per cent to €13.39 million in 2025, and cheques to outside the EEA declining by 24.1 per cent to €320.99 million in 2025 reflecting a broader shift towards electronic payment methods for cross-border transactions.

Further information

• The European Central Bank has an interactive Payment Statistics Dashboard for a view of the wider Euro Area and European Union Payments Statistics
• 2022 is the first reporting under the updated Regulation (EU) 2020/59 on Payment Statistics

• All numbers have been rounded off to two decimal digit for reporting purposes. Recent data is often provisional and may be subject to revision.
• Health Insurance Authority (HIA) Q4 2025 Quarterly Bulletin
• CSO Consumer Price Index (CPI) December 2025 release

[1] Other EEA countries are the 29 European Economic Area members excluding Ireland.

[2] Card-based payment transactions made via computer, mobile internet, and electronic POS terminal (e.g. card machine) are considered to be “initiated electronically, while Card payments authenticated with a signature at the POS, either on paper or on a signature pad, are considered to be card-based payment transactions initiated non-electronically. Other examples of non-electronic card payments are telephone orders and mail orders".

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