Contactless payments to drive global card spend to $45T by 2023

Payment cards were used for purchases with a value of $25.1 trillion worldwide in 2017, an increase of 13 percent from the prior year, according to the recent RBR report, Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2023.

Although card expenditure is growing strongly, it is being outpaced by growth in the number of payments, as cards are increasingly being used for lower-value payments, according to a news release from RBR.

RBR forecasts that global card expenditure will grow at an average rate of 10 percent per year between 2017 and 2023 to reach $45.2 trillion. However, the average value of a payment will fall from $67 to $62 over the same period due to the influence of contactless cards, which typically are used for the lowest-value payments – many of which previously would have been made with cash.

According to RBR research, Asia-Pacific accounts for 50 percent of global card expenditure, on a share of payment volume that amounts to 28 percent share of the global total.

The main reason for this is that, in China, cards tend to be used for cash withdrawals rather than payments. When they are used at the point of sale, it is typically for a high-value purchase such as a property deposit or vehicle.

The report shows that debit cards account for 55 percent of spending on cards worldwide, with a much higher ratio of payment volume than credit cards, due to the fact that debit cards are most often used for low-value purchases, whereas credit cards are usually used for more expensive items.

According to Daniel Dawson, who led the RBR research project, the value of card payments worldwide will doubtless continue to rise, but the average value of a payment will keep falling,.

«Consumers worldwide are becoming more comfortable with using their cards for inexpensive goods, especially as contactless cards become commonplace,» he said. «As they increasingly expect to be able to use contactless cards across the board, the average value of a payment will continue to fall.»

Source: ATM Marketplace