In the next four years card payments will grow in Italy by 6,1% per year. In general, cashless transactions (which also include other traceable instruments, such as wire transfers, checks and digital wallets) will instead record a slightly lower growth rate: +5,3% a year. The data are contained in the eighteenth edition of the report “Global Payments 2020: Fast Forward into the Future”, edited by Boston Consulting.
The analysis shows that the pandemic - especially in the months of lockdown, but not only - has accelerated the growth of digital payments globally, but the difference compared to the past is more evident in our country, where traditionally the use of cash is more widespread and rooted than in the rest of the EU and OECD countries.
Just think that, in 2019in Italy the number of card (credit or debit card) transactions per capita was 57, while cashless payments reached 92. The first figure is also lower than that of countries such as Spain, Malta e Greece, where 103, 96 and 72 card transactions per capita were recorded respectively last year.
Among the most unsuspected cash aficionados are the Germans and Austrians, who in any case far outnumber the Italians: in Germany each consumer uses the card on average 68 times in a year, while in the near Austria it reaches 105.
But we are still talking about low numbers, very far from the average of theWestern Europe, where in 2019 there were an average of 172 card transactions and 264 cashless payments per capita. In particular, at the top of the ranking are the countries of theNorthern Europe, where each person made an average of 389 card transactions last year.
“It will be interesting to verify the impact that is expected Cashback bonuses, designed to facilitate the transition to electronic payments and reduce the use of cash, will have on the habits of Italians”, conclude the Boston Consulting analysts.
