Malta 2025
Market Overview Payment Organisation At present, there is no interbank organisation. Domestic Card Brands One Maltese closed-loop mono-bank ATM/debit card brand: Cashlink. Market Structure Replacement of mono-bank cards in favour of international schemes VISA and Mastercard. Maltese banks have arranged authorisation, clearing and settlement services directly with VISA and Mastercard. Cheque payments, which began to […]
Luxembourg 2025
Market Overview Payment Organisation Worldline SIX Payment Services S.A. Domestic Payment Brands No domestic payment brands. Market Structure The banks in Luxembourg opted for V PAY as debit card brand. Worldline manages the Bancomat POS and ATM infrastructure, acts as acquirer, and offers card processing and issuer services to issuers in Luxembourg and in Europe. […]
Lithuania 2025
Market Analysis Payment Organisation None Domestic Payment Brands No domestic payment brands. Domestic cards were phased-out 2009. Market Structure The Lithuanian card market has a competitive, decentralised, infrastructure composed of five major issuers, six major acquirers, card processors, four ATM networks and six major POS networks. Following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, several UK […]
Latvia 2025
Market Overview Payment Organisation None. Domestic Payment Brands No domestic payment brands. Market Structure The Latvian card market has a competitive, decentralised, infrastructure composed of 11 card issuers, 6 acquirers, card processors, 5 ATM networks, and 4 POS networks. The number of Latvian payment cards reached 2.11 million in 2023, down from 2.18 million in […]
Italy 2025
Market Overview Payment Organisations Bancomat S.p.A. – oversees the Bancomat and PagoBancomat systems. Nexi, which was formed from ICBPI. Nexi acquired interbank processor SIA Group (2020) and NETS Group in 2021. Domestic Payment Brands PagoBancomat, co-badged Maestro, VISA Debit or V PAY. ATM: Bancomat, Postamat, co-badged Maestro or Mastercard. Credit: CartaSi, co-badged Mastercard or VISA. […]
Ireland 2025
Market Overview Payment Organisations Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI). Domestic Payment Brands No domestic payment brands. Market Structure Historically the credit card market, debit card use has grown through the domestic Laser debit card scheme. In 2023, more than 91.88% of card payments by volume were with debit cards. Irish banks replaced domestic Laser […]
Iceland 2025
Market Overview Payment Organisation Greiðsluveitan Domestic Payment Brands No domestic payment brands. Market Structure Card use in Iceland is the highest in the world, reflecting the extension of card payments into new areas. As there is no Giro system, cards take the place of direct debits for recurring payments. In 2023, there were 117.1 million […]
Hungary 2025
Market Overview Payment Organisation Nexi (formerly SIA Central Europe, interbank organisation GIRO Bankcard Company (GBC)). Domestic Payment Brands No domestic payment brands. Market Structure Debit cards account for 88.91% of the payment card base. Rapid growth of card use. 93.00% of all cards are contactless. In September 2016, the number of contactless card payments exceeded […]
Greece 2025
Market Overview Payment Organisations DIAS, Hellenic Bankers Association Domestic Payment Brands No domestic payment brands. Market Structure Greece has a cash-based economy. There were 194.8 card payments per capita in 2023. The Greek crisis affected card usage from 2009. Card numbers declined to 13.2 million in 2014 but recovered from 2015. For the first time […]
Germany 2025
Market Overview Payment Organisations German Banking Industry Committee (GBIC) is the umbrella organisation of the German banks regarding payment services. Domestic Payment Brands girocard debit cards; mostly co-badged V PAY, Debit Mastercard, or VISA Debit. E-purse GeldKarte phase-out complete by end-2024. giropay digital A2A payment service, phase-out by end-2024. Wero: In 2024, launch of P2P […]