Retail payment services 2023 – highlights

• Norway is one of the countries in the world with the highest annual use of payment cards per inhabitant. On average, each Norwegian used a card 550 times in 2023.
• Most card payments were made at a physical point of sale. Points of sale include shops, restaurants, vending machines, hairdressing salons, public transport and so on. Physical payment cards were used for most of these payments, but the number of card payments through mobile phones is rapidly increasing. Our latest survey shows that 20 percent of payments at a physical point of sale were made using various mobile payment platforms.
• Online purchases have been growing strongly for many years. Most online purchases are settled using a payment card, either directly or via various mobile payment platforms. One in four online purchases were settled in other ways, the most common being payment against an invoice.
• The different card systems are used in different areas. For online shopping and mobile payments, international payment cards are primarily used. The strong growth in these areas has led to BankAxept payments accounting for a falling share of card payments. In 2023, BankAxept payments accounted for 53 percent of card payments. In 2019, the year before the pandemic, they accounted for 65 percent of card payments.
• Cash use has stabilised in the last few years after long being in decline. Our latest survey shows that 2 percent of survey participants used cash the last time they paid at a physical point of sale. Withdrawals of cash has also been stable in recent years.

Corrected version published 7 June 2024: In chapter 2, the sentence "This is the first year that the number of BankAxept transactions has fallen.” is corrected to "This is the second time that the number of BankAxept transactions has fallen.”