According to figures released by the electronic and digital transactions management company Bancontact Payconiq Company, there was a big increase in the number of transactions using payment apps in Belgium last year. Compared with 2023 there were 30% more purchases made with payment apps in 2024.
The lion’s share of the payments made via payment apps are made for online purchases. These accounted for 335 million transactions in 2024, 70% of the total number of transactions made through payment apps.
The CEO of Bancontact Payconiq Company Nathalie Vandepeute says that "90% of online payments are now being made via mobile apps and just 10% using a card reader”.
However, the greatest increase in mobile payments has been seen in the shops. Last year 65 million payments were made using smartphones on shops in Belgium. This is an increase of 58% compared with 2023. The remainder of the mobile app payments (some 70 million) were payments made between individuals, usually friends or family members.
Last year Bancontact Payconiq Company registered a total of 2.5 billion payments. This is a rise of 5% on the figures for 2023. The vast majority of these were using Bancontact debit cards. Nathalie Vandepeute adds that there has been a noticeable increase in the number of contactless payments. Of the 1.9 billion payments made through Bancontact in shops last year more than two-thirds were contactless.
Payconiq brand to be scrapped in 2026
The Payconiq payment app will be scrapped sometime during 2026. Both the Bancontact Payconiq Company and als de app "Payconiq by Bancontact" will be given new names although the app itself will continue to exist so effectively little if anything will change for those that use the app.