European Central Bank releases EU payments statistics for 2009

The 2009 statistics on payments have found that the total number of non-cash payments in the EU, using all types of instruments, increased by over 4 percent to EUR 82 billion in 2009 compared with the previous year. Card payments represented nearly 40 percent of all transactions, while credit transfers and direct debits accounted in equal shares for most of the remainder (over 26 percent each).

The corresponding total value of non-cash payments in the EU decreased by almost 16 percent to EUR 227 trillion, resulting in a further decline (of almost 20 percent) in the average value per transaction, to EUR 2,771. Credit transfers were found to account for almost 90 percent of the total value, while the remainder was generated primarily by direct debits (7 percent) and cheques (slightly below 3 percent).

The total number of payment cards in the EU was found to be stable compared with 2008, at just under 726 million. This represented around 1.45 payment cards per EU citizen.

The number of automated teller machines (ATMs) available to the public increased by 2 percent to over 430,000 in 2009 compared with the previous year. This means that by the end of 2009 there were about 870 ATMs per million inhabitants in the EU.

The number of transactions carried out with all payment instruments grew by 4.3 percent from 2008 to 2009, thus continuing the upward trend but at a slower pace than the average increase of 6.5 percent per year between 2000 and 2008.

This pattern was also observed for card payments, credit transfers and direct debits, the respective annual growth rates of which in 2009 were 6.8 percent, 3.6 percent and 5 percent, respectively. The average growth rates for these instruments between 2000 and 2008 were somewhat higher, at 11.6 percent, 5.9 percent and 6.8 percent. The number of cheque transactions fell by over 7.5 percent in 2009. Although continuing the long-term decline in the use of this instrument, the number shows a faster decrease than in previous years, for which the average rate was 5.2 percent per year.