Retail Payments in the Euro Area – What Does the Data Really Tell Us?

Diederik Bruggink, Senior Director – Payments, Digital Finance and Innovation (WSBI-ESBG ¹), has published an article in the Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems: ‘A Tale of Transactions: An analysis of Retail Payments in the Euro Area’ posted on LinkedIn about it (Post | LinkedIn) ². The paper takes a data-driven look at how Europeans really pay today – across cash, debit cards and e-money – using the European Central Bank (ECB) SPACE 2024 study and the ECB Data Portal, with the aim of adding to the current debate about a possible holding limit for the digital euro.

Bruggink compares average transaction values for cash, debit cards and e-money across member states, and examines how each payment method is used in everyday practice. The findings reveal that cash usage, while declining in frequency, remains important in retail payments.