Aussie cards market to hit almost $900b

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

30 March 2023

The latest figures from GlobalData have shown Australia’s payment card market is forecast to grow by 8.1 per cent in 2023 to hit $AUD896.5 billion.

This comes after the data firm’s Payment Cards Analytics determined a rise in post-pandemic consumer spending and strong economic activity that has contributed to high card usage across the Australian population.

Australian individuals recorded 516.7 card payments each in 2022, compared to 510.0 in South Korea, 298.1 in New Zealand, 285.9 in Singapore, 180.0 in China and 138.6 in Japan.

“Australia has a well-developed card payment market with strong payment infrastructure and high consumer preference for electronic payments,” Shivani Gupta, Senior Banking and Payments Analyst at GlobalData, said.

“The growth in the card payments has been characterised by the high banked population and shift away from cash towards contactless payments.”

GlobalData analytics also said the preference for contactless card payments by Australian consumers has led to its wide acceptance across the majority of retailers and as a mainstream payment method offered by financial institutions.

Debit card payments also saw a growth of 11.4 per cent in 2022, compared to the five per cent growth of credit and charge cards, continuing as the most popular payment card type in Australia and accounting for just under 60 per cent of total card payment value in 2022.

Credit and charge cards accounted for 40.4 per cent of total card payment value last year falling from 50.5 per cent in 2018, which GlobalData ascribed to the desire to avoid credit card debt and the persistent popularity of buy now, pay later (BNPL) and other alternative payment methods.

“Economic recovery, rise in consumer spending, and high contactless adoption will continue to push card payments usage in Australia, which is projected to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.8% between 2022 to 2026, to reach AUD1.1 trillion ($735.6 billion) in 2026,” Gupta said.