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Finland and the Netherlands lead in card payments in the eurozone

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People in Finland and the Netherlands make debit card payments at the point of sale more often than those in other euro countries, using a payment card, smartphone or smartwatch. Finns pay this way slightly more often than people in the Netherlands. This is shown by a new European Central Bank study (ECB) of consumer payment behaviour in the eurozone.

Composite image showing cash payment with 20 euro note on the left and POS terminal with the sign 'Pay contactless here too' on the right.
Chart from the ECB SPACE 2022 study comparing cash and card payment use across eurozone countries.

In Finland and the Netherlands, roughly one in five point-of-sale payments is still made in cash. Across the eurozone as a whole, the average is as high as three in five payments. Cash is used more often than average in the large euro countries Germany, Italy and Spain.

The ECB obtains the Dutch data partly from the annual Point-of-Sale Payments report by the Dutch Payments Association and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB).

The number of debit card payments in the Netherlands rose sharply again this year, following two years of coronavirus restrictions in physical shops. In 2022, more than 5 billion debit card payments were made within a single calendar year for the first time. Around 30% of all Dutch debit card payments are now made using a smartphone or smartwatch.

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