National Payments Plan National Payments Plan November 2014Ronnie O’Toole

2 Current situation Electronic payments around half the northern European level Ireland second only to France in terms of cheque usage; Ireland second highest ATM withdrawals per capita; Business e-banking penetration levels low ; Over half all social welfare paid out in cash.

3 But making a payment costs money! Payments in Ireland today

4 National Payments Plan - Vision Irish consumers and businesses will have access to the most innovative payment methods Cash will remain a widely used method of payment Cheque usage will fall though will remain available

Change is happening – Debit Cards Debit card usage has surged in Ireland over the last number of years, increasing 62% since 2009 alone; ‘Contactless’ transactions on debit cards are currently increasing 6.5-fold in a year; Other forms of cashless payment growing in popularity: – Leap Cards up 7.2% in a quarter to 7.2m trips in Q1. Up 57% in a year. Leap now launched in Cork. – Parking Tag also growing rapidly. 22% of all parking now by Parking Tag – 2m transactions pa.

Change is happening – Financial Inclusion EU survey results from 2013* show that 94% of Irish consumers now have a bank account; This compares with only 83% as recently as 2008, evidence that Ireland is rapidly converging with the Northern European norm of 95%-100% of households with access to a bank account; retail/docs/inclusion/ factsheet-3_en.pdf

Change is happening - cash Cash usage has declined significantly since the onset of the recession; It peaked in 2008 at around €29 billion, before declining sharply subsequently. The fall now appears to have ended, and ATM withdrawals are broadly stable. A small rise in 2013 was attributed to the increase in ATM withdrawals by tourists due to the success of the ‘Gathering.’ While Ireland up to 2012 was the highest per-capita users of ATMs in Europe, it now is the second highest behind Belgium. The European norm is for withdrawals of €2,689 per capita from ATMs, far lower than the Irish figure of €4,375 per capita.

Cashless society … no! 8 Published: December 2008 Less-cash society … yes!

Chequeless society … almost certainly 9 Patricia Simon Ronnie Callan Harris O’Toole (SFA) (Minister) (NPP)

10 Promoting electronic payments 1. Payment charges 2. New technology 3. Financial Inclusion 4. Expanding choice

New Technology Payments by mobile Contactless 11

Financial Exclusion Ireland’s rate of financial exclusion has fallen from 17% in 2008 to 6% today. However: Half of all social welfare is still given out over the counter in cash; Government has launched the Social Welfare payment strategy which aims for 100% electronic payments; 12

Expanding Choice 13

14 Improving cash efficiency Making Cash Moving Cash Accessing Cash Trial run in September-November 2013 in Wexford on the possibility of reducing the use of 1c & 2c coins

15 National Payments Plan Irish consumers and businesses will have access to the most innovative payment methods Cash will remain a widely used method of payment Cheque usage will fall though will remain available