More than 3 billion contactless payments in 2019

28 January 2020

In 2019, 3.04 billion contactless payments were made at Dutch points of sale, with a total value of €51.3 billion, according to the Dutch Payments Association’s 2019 annual figures . A total of 4.74 billion electronic point-of-sale payments worth €119 billion were made, 10% more than a year earlier. By the end of the year, 69% of all electronic point-of-sale payments were contactless, compared with 56% a year earlier. Smartphones and wearables were already used for 10% of contactless payments.

Customer holds a smartphone against a payment terminal while an employee holds the card reader during a contactless mobile payment.

“Contactless payment has become a resounding success in a short period of time: it is inexpensive for businesses and fast and easy for consumers,” says Piet Mallekoote, Managing Director of the Dutch Payments Association. “Consumers also have increasing confidence in the security of contactless payments.”

The share of point-of-sale payments made using debit cards, credit cards, smartphones and wearables rose from 63% in 2018 to 67% in 2019. Reverse debit card payments at points of sale also increased sharply, rising by more than 44% from 2018 to 6.16 million transactions worth €310 million.

Infographic showing key figures for Dutch payments in 2019, including contactless payments, Instant Payments and service availability

More than 200 million Instant Payments

Following the roll-out of Instant Payments during 2019, 201 million instant credit transfers were processed. Almost all ordinary single domestic credit transfers made through online or mobile banking were by then Instant Payments, reaching the recipient’s payment account within seconds. Instant Payments are also processed extremely quickly at night, at weekends and on public holidays, including when the recipient banks with a different provider from the sender.

The seven Dutch banks offering Instant Payments processed almost 2 million instant credit transfers on the busiest day. Within a few months, Instant Payments became the new standard for ordinary domestic credit transfers.

High confidence, high availability and fewer switchers

Consumers gave the overall security of digital banking and payments a rating of 7.7 out of 10, the same as in an earlier survey in 2017. The rating for contactless payments rose from 6.5 to 7.9 for payments made with a debit or credit card, and to 7.2 for contactless smartphone payments.

The availability of debit card payments, mobile banking and online banking at Dutch banks was again high in 2019. Debit card payments had an availability of 99.89%.

Use of the Dutch Switching Service declined from 91,000 users in 2018 to 66,000 in 2019. More and more banks were making it quick and easy to switch digitally, a development expected to continue in 2020.

Download the full infographic (in Dutch)…

View the Dutch Payments Association’s facts and figures for 2019 online…