Growth in non-cash payment volumes in emerging economies is outpacing that of the developed markets, with Central Europe, the Middle East, Africa (CEMEA) and Emerging Asia leading the charge, according to the World Payments Report 2013 published recently by Capgemini and RBS showed.
However, mature markets still account for more than two-thirds of global non-cash transaction volumes with a 76.9%. Forecasts show that for all the growth in the surging economies of Asia and Latin America, it will still take at least 10 years for emerging markets to overtake mature markets in transaction volumes.
“In the developing markets, mobile payments are giving more people access to financial transactions, while customer-centric innovation has helped prepaid cards and virtual currency gain traction in the more developed markets,” said Kevin Brown, Managing Director, Global Head of Transaction Services, RBS International Banking.
The report noted that debit and credit cards continue to be the most popular non-cash payment instruments, ahead of e- and m-payments.
Debit card use grew by 15.8% (to 124 billion transactions) globally during 2011 and credit cards grew by 12.3% (to 57 billion transactions).
Industry estimates suggest online and mobile payments will grow at 18.1% and 58.5% respectively through 2014. E-payments are expected to reach a total of 34.8 billion transactions by 2014, alongside 28.9 billion mobile payment transactions in the same year.