Strong growth in electronic payments in the Netherlands in 2014

Consumers had never made more debit card and iDEAL payments than in 2014. With the number of debit card payments rising by almost 10% and iDEAL payments by more than a quarter, people in the Netherlands showed their confidence in electronic payments. The Dutch Payments Association also expected strong growth in 2015, driven by developments including contactless payments, debit card refunds, mobile iDEAL and the introduction of digital mandates.

Records for debit card payments and iDEAL

Consumers in the Netherlands made more debit card payments than ever in 2014. Their number reached a new record (in Dutch) of 2.913 billion, an increase of 9.5% compared with 2013. As in previous years, the strongest growth was in debit card payments between €0 and €10. Their number rose by 17.9% during the year to more than one billion, accounting for over a third (37%) of all debit card payments.

Since their introduction in early 2014, consumers had increasingly made contactless payments (in Dutch). Almost 8.3 million purchases were paid for contactlessly in 2014. More than eight million contactless debit cards were in circulation, which consumers could use at 56,000 payment terminals in the Netherlands, or one in six.

In 2014, 180.2 million payments were made with iDEAL, an increase (in Dutch) of 26.4% compared with 2013. Since its market launch in late 2005, 695.4 million iDEAL payments had been made in total. Increasing smartphone and tablet use made an important contribution to this growth. There was also a particular increase in iDEAL payments outside traditional e-commerce, such as donations to charities and the payment of invoices and fines. Interest in iDEAL also grew because customers in the Netherlands could increasingly use it at foreign online shops. Research (in Dutch) also showed that consumers in the Netherlands paid for more than half (53%) of all online purchases with iDEAL in the first half of 2014.

Fewer disruptions in payments

The banking sector continuously works to improve the reliability and availability of its systems. This had led to a clear decline in the number of disruptions. Between 2011 and 2014, the number of debit card payments increased from 2.3 billion to almost three billion. Over the same period, the number of disruptions fell from 13 in 2011 to two in 2014. Nevertheless, banks and other stakeholders continued to work on improvements. Their aim was to raise availability, which was 99.85% in 2014, to almost 100%. The availability of iDEAL (in Dutch) for consumers remained high in 2014 at an average of 99.5%, within the 99.0% standard.

Innovation

Contactless payments and debit card refunds were important innovations in debit card payments. When consumers returned a purchase to a shop, Retourpinnen (in Dutch) allowed the purchase amount to be refunded directly to their payment account instead of being paid in cash. More than 50,000 refunds were made in this way in the final two months of 2014.

Mobile iDEAL was an important factor in iDEAL’s success. The popularity of smartphones and tablets contributed strongly to the growth of e-commerce and mobile commerce. Users needed to be able to pay quickly and easily on mobile devices. Increasing numbers of banks had therefore supported mobile iDEAL since 2013, and online shops could integrate it seamlessly into their mobile website or app.

In 2015, the Digital Mandate Service would be introduced as a legally valid alternative to paper direct debit mandates. It was a secure and efficient way to pay periodically or afterwards for products and services through the customer’s own banking environment. Examples included insurance, electricity and subscriptions, offering greater convenience to consumers and businesses.