Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Ireland’s Central Bank has released its latest credit and debit card statistics from Q4 2017. Here is an overview of the statistics:
Debit card Point of Sale (PoS) transactions in December 2017 were €3.6 billion, 15 percent higher than the same month in 2016. Debit card PoS transactions accounted for 57 percent of gross new transactions on all cards in December. Retail, services and social debit card expenditure all recorded double-digit increases, over the year to December 2017. Credit card spending was largely similar to the same period in 2016, experiencing a minor increase of €19 million.
Total e-commerce expenditure was €1.34 billion in December, with €949 million and €389 million attributable to debit cards and credit cards, respectively. The December value is 15 percent higher than the previous year. E-commerce accounted for 21 percent of new transactions on all cards during the month. It now forms 26 percent of debit card spending and 40 percent of credit card purchases.
Debit card PoS has spending had grown to over three times the value of credit card spending in December. There were increases across all categories of spending, but social and services spending had the highest increases over the year, both at 17 percent. Within services, Professional Services have increased by 21 percent since December 2016. Within social, a similar trend is evident for Restaurants/Dining, which recorded a 20 percent rise.
Credit cards also experienced increases in total spending, albeit to a lesser extent, with falls in certain subcategories. Total expenditure on social, retail and services grew by 2 percent, 1 percent, and 3 percent, respectively. Professional Services experienced the largest growth of any category, increasing by 8 percent. In contrast, spending on Entertainment (1 percent), Health (2 percent) and Clothing (2 percent) witnessed minor falls.
Just under 75 percent of all credit card expenditure in December 2017 was split between the retail (47 percent) and services (26 percent) sectors. In comparison, retail was predominant for debit cards, accounting for 56 per cent of new spending, or triple the expenditure on services.
Total card expenditure outside Ireland averaged €515 million in the 3 months to end-December. Credit or debit card expenditure outside Ireland (when the physical card is present) provides an indication of expenditure abroad by Irish tourists. A significant seasonal effect can be seen in the data, particularly for debit cards, with higher expenditures outside Ireland recorded in the summer months compared to the winter months. Debit card expenditure abroad during 2017 amounted to €4.4 billion, an increase of 17 per cent on the 2016 figure. Credit card expenditure outside Ireland remained relatively stable with a 1 per cent increase in 2017 compared with the 2016 figure. The total value of debit card expenditure outside Ireland (including ATM transactions) is 2.8 times the value of equivalent credit card expenditure. This compares with a ratio of just 1.3 recorded in January 2015.