Payment Statistics Quarterly
Publication date: 1st December 2023
This is the first quarterly payment statistics publication following the introduction of Payment Statistics Regulation (ECB/2020/59). The amended regulation introduces 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.
3.5 billion Total Payment Transactions’ in 2022
- During 2022, 3.5 billion payment transactions were recorded by Irish resident payment service providers (PSPs), a 36.5 per cent increase from 2021. This amounted to just over €10.4 trillion, representing a 12.2 per cent increase on the €9.6 trillion recorded during 2021. Payment transactions by non-monetary financial institutions include credit transfers, direct debits, card based payment transactions, cash withdrawals, cheques, e-money transactions, money remittance and other payment services.
- The revised expansion of the regulation provides further analysis on the counterpart areas. This consists of transfers issued: (i) Domestically - transfers issued in Ireland (ii) Other European Economic Area (EEA) - transfers issued to countries in the EEA and (iii) Rest of world - transfers issued to countries outside the EEA (including Ireland).
Domestic Credit Transfers over the last quarter of 2022 were €956 billion
- In 2022, total value (€10 trillion) and volume (482.7 million) of credit transfers (sent) grew by 13.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively when compared to 2021 (€8.86 trillion and 453.1 million).
- Value of credit transfers (sent) increased by 2.2 per cent, from €2.37 trillion in Q1-2022 to €2.42 trillion in Q2-2023 while the volume of credit transfers increased by 45.6 per cent, from 107 million in Q1-2022 to 155.9 million in Q2-2023.
- Credit transfers (sent) vary due to seasonal trends, notably in Q4-2022 credit transfers increased to €2.68 trillion, an 8.9 per cent increase from the prior quarter. Interestingly, this increase is mainly driven by (i) domestic credit transfers, which increased from €817 billion in Q3 2022 to €956 billion in Q4 2022 (17.1 per cent increase) and (ii) Rest of world credit transfers, which increased from €971 billion in Q3 2022 to 1.1 trillion in Q4-2022 (11.5 per cent increase). In contrast to Other EEA countries where credit transfers dropped from €674 billion in Q3 2022 to €640 billion in Q4 2022 (5 per cent decrease). (See Chart 1)
44.4 million in Direct Debits occurred during Q2 2023
- Direct debits (sent) by Irish residents are a popular means of payment, totalling €281.8 billion, from Q1-2022 to Q2-2023. The value of direct debits (sent) increased by 25 per cent from €41.5 billion in Q1-2022 to €51.9 billion in Q2-2023. Similarly, the volume of direct debits (sent) transfers grew by 1.4 per cent from 43.822 million in Q1-2022 to 44.4 million in Q2-2023.
- In line with seasonal trends, direct debits (sent) have a high value for Q4-2022, reaching €51.5 billion, which makes up 28.1 per cent (€51.5 billion) of total direct debits value in 2022.
- In value and volume terms, from Q1-2022 to Q2-2023, the majority of total direct debits (sent) occurs domestically, accounting for 93.8 per cent (€264.5 billion) and 78.1 per cent (206.8 million) respectively.
98 per cent of Cheques are sent domestically
- In value and volume terms, cheques (sent) declined by 3.2 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively between Q1 2022 and Q2 2023, a significant contributor being the exit of two retail banks from the Irish market.
- From Q1-2022 to Q2-2023, both value and volume of domestic transfers amounted to 98 per cent of total cheques (sent), totalling €84.9 billion and 25 million respectively.
Card-based Payment Transactions continue to grow in 2023
- In line with seasonal trends in 2022, Q4 hits its highest card payments, with value hitting €26.4 billion and volume hitting 535.8 million (chart 4).
- Card based payment transfers (sent) continue to grow in 2023 with quarter on quarter growth. Value increased by 3 per cent, from 26.4 billion in Q4-2022 to 27.25 billion in Q1-2023 and increased a further 10.7 per cent, from 27.25 billion in Q1-2023 to 30.2 billion in Q2-2023. Similarly , volume increased by 11.9 per cent, from 535.8 million in Q4-2022 to 599.6 million in Q1-2023 and increased a further 13 per cent, from 599.6 million in Q1-2023 to 678 million in Q2-2023 (see chart 4).
Significant growth in E-money Transfers
- E-Money[1] has been a growing payment instrument in recent years due to authorisations for firms in this space. In the latest period, the growth is driven by domestic e-money transactions, with value increasing from €633.72 million in Q1-2022 to €6.8 billion in Q2-2023 and volume of transfers increasing from 3.2 million in Q1-2022 to 193.3 million in Q2-2023 (See chart 3).
- Similarly, e-money transfers to Rest of world grew within Ireland, with value increasing by 78.8 per cent, from €1.4 billion in Q1-2022 to €2.4 billion in Q2-2023. The volume of transfers grew by 38.2 per cent, from 7.8 million in Q1-2022 to 10.8 million in Q2-2023.
- The value of e-money transfers to other EEA countries decreased by 1 per cent, from €6.18 billion in Q1-2022 to €6.13 billion in Q2-2023, meanwhile volume to other EEA countries increased by 48.5 per cent, from 15.7 million in Q1-2022 to 23.4 million in Q2-2023.
Further Information
[1] Electronic Money (e-money) is broadly defined as an electronic store of monetary value on a technical device that may be widely used for making payments to entities other than the e-money issuer.
Payment Statistics Quarterly | pdf 292 KB
Payment Statistics Quarterly | xlsx 93 KB
Payment-Statistics-2021-Discontinued | pdf 289 KB
Payment-Statistics-2021-Discontinued | xls 868 KB
Explanatory Notes | pdf 251 KB