The European banking landscape has transformed in the last 15 years. The switch from branch to digital banking is the most obvious sign of this transformation: according to Eurostat, almost two-thirds of Europeans now use digital banking, compared to less than one in four fifteen years ago. With specific regard to payments, cash use has continued to decline, and is being replaced not just by cards, but by a diverse range of payment options including digital wallets, account-to-account payments and more recent options such as crypto and “request to pay” technologies.

Data from Worldpay demonstrates this diversity in action. Worldpay’s Global Payments Report 2021 predicts the use of digital wallets will rise to almost one in three transactions by the end of 2023, with card payments experiencing a corresponding decrease in usage. Meanwhile, PCM’s Digital and Card Payment Yearbooks 2021-2022 show cash is now used in just one in five transactions in the UK and Netherlands, with cash use below five percent in Norway and Sweden.