Contactless payments are expected to boom in Europe

[Carding Forum]

The active growth in the volume and number of contactless payments in Europe during 2021, in particular due to the issuance of new cards and the installation of terminals by Visa and MasterCard, laid the foundation for the rapid growth of the market in the coming years. This is reported in a recent study by the consulting company RBR.

According to the study, at the end of 2021, there were 223 million contactless cards in circulation in Europe, which is 65% more than in 2019. Thus, contactless cards make up 15% of all payment cards in the region. The popularity of contactless payments is also increasing - during 2021, European users made 1.4 billion contactless payments (up 155% compared to 2013) for a total of 15 billion euros (+ 190% compared to the previous year).

This is impressive growth in such a short period, but contactless transactions still account for only 2% of the total volume of card payments in the region and 0.5% of their number. According to RBR forecasts, the number of contactless cards will triple by 2020 - to 700 million cards, which will account for 40% of all cards in circulation.

As of the end of 2014, there were 2.5 million contactless payment terminals in Europe, accounting for 16% of all POS terminals in the region. Visa and MasterCard announced that from the beginning of 2016 all new terminals will be equipped with the function of accepting contactless payments, and by 2022 the existing terminals will also be refurbished.

As a result, according to RBR forecasts, the number of contactless payments will grow 9 times and will amount to 12.2 billion in 2022, representing 13% of the total number of all card payments.