Yahoo Finance Common item big bank predicts will disappear this year
Since the introduction of the digital wallet everyone knew it would lead to the end of the road for the regular wallet, but now the time has officially come.
New CBA research found the number of monthly digital wallet transactions increased 90 per cent between March 2020 and March 2021.
CBA’s executive general manager of everyday banking Kate Crous said the events of the last 12 months have accelerated the trend.
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“We know customers continue to value the ease and security of digital wallets and over the last year we have seen Covid play a part in accelerating the trend,” Crous said.
Commonwealth Bank sees around 40 per cent of total card and digital wallet transactions in Australia.
The figures also revealed that many Aussies have started making higher value purchases via their digital wallets with the average spend increasing from $41 to $44 for credit and from $26 to $29 for debit.
“People mostly use digital wallets to pay for everyday expenses such as public transport, groceries, food and beverage, retail shopping and petrol,” Crous said.
“As customers are becoming more comfortable with paying this way, we have seen the average amount being spent using digital wallets continue to rise, both for credit and debit purchases on average, over the year.”
Crous said based on the current trends, digital wallets will likely be the most popular contactless way to pay by the end of the year.
“Over the last couple of years we have seen a 10 per cent increase in digitally active customers, up to 7.5 million,” she said.
“Given this increasing move towards digital, we expect the growth of digital payments to keep rising and expect by the end of this year, that every second contactless in-store payment will be made using a digital wallet.”
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