Digital payments landscape in France - statistics & facts

Digital payments in France are dominated by cards in both POS and online shopping, due to the popularity of Cartes Bancaires. Carte Bancaires or CB - "bank cards" in English - is a card scheme co-branded with Visa and Mastercard. More than half of payment cards issued in France are debit cards, but the French tend to refer to any payment card when using the term "Cartes Bancaires" - including cards not from this brand. The dominance of cards especially shows in French POS, as debit and credit cards together made up more than eight out of 10 transactions in physical stores. Digital wallets are slowly becoming popular in France, most notably in e-commerce. Google Pay was a more popular contactless (tap to pay) payment method in France than Apple Pay.

Digital payments refer to any form of cashless payment, or payments conducted without banknotes or coins, in an online or offline environment. Such payments can include mobile payments - digital payments performed with a mobile device - but also relatively new trends like buy now, pay later (BNPL), cryptocurrency, or instant (real-time) payments. Out of all these digital options, which developments are noteworthy to know about for France?

Will an e-commerce boom enable alternative payments in France?

One of Europe's most populated countries, e-commerce in France was relatively small compared to total retail sales in 2021. Some may see this as an opportunity to expand revenue and maybe compete against local scheme Cartes Bancaires. Digital wallets - such as Apple Pay and Google Pay - are seen as payments that could benefit from future growth in online shopping in France. French consumers had concerns about mobile wallet security, however, fearing potential fraud or piracy. Indeed, French consumers were more skeptical than consumers from elsewhere regarding an e-commerce merchant's ability to prevent fraud.

France's experiments with CBDC for cross-border settlements

Since November 2022, France's central bank - with those of Switzerland and Singapore, as well as BIS (Bank for International Settlements) - participates in a pilot project on cross-border CBDC (central bank-issued digital currency) settlement using DeFi (Decentralized Finance) protocols. The six-month trial, named Project Mariana, is meant to test a new digital infrastructure for easy FX trading between countries. France was also the main country in Europe to experiment with the digital euro. Before this, France experimented with CBDC in 2020 to settle French government bonds - an experiment no other country had tried until then. France's goals with these experiments are to support cross-border settlements and to manage liquidity in Decentralized Finance. France's central bank is not creating retail CBDC projects for consumers like in China and the Bahamas.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Mar 30, 2023

Key insights

Forecasted number of digital payment transactions in Europe
482bn
Credit card penetration in France
39.8%
Buy now, pay later market share in domestic e-commerce in France
5%
Get more insights

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Share of cash estimate at point of sale (POS) in France from 2000 to 2021

Payments

Annual level of cash payments in France 2000-2021

Total number of POS terminals provided in France from 2000 to 2022

Payments

POS terminal count in France 2000-2022

Value of credit card transactions for payments in France from 2014 to 2021 (in million euros, and estimates in U.S. dollars)

Payments

Annual credit card spending in France 2014-2021, in local currency and USD

Related topics

Payment behavior in France

2

Payment behavior in Europe

2

Digital payment trends worldwide

6

Recommended statistics

Market share

6

Market share

Penetration

6

Penetration

Biggest brands

5

Biggest brands

Users

5

Users

Transaction value

6

Transaction value

Number of transactions (per user)

6

Number of transactions (per user)

Miscellaneous

7

Miscellaneous

Further reportsGet the best reports to understand your industry

Contact

Get in touch with us. We are happy to help.
Statista Locations
Contact Meredith Alda
Meredith Alda
Sales Manager– Contact (United States)
Email
support@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)

Contact Yolanda Mega
Yolanda Mega
Operations Manager– Contact (Asia)
Email
asia.support@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9am - 5pm (SGT)

Contact Kisara Mizuno
Kisara Mizuno
Senior Business Development Manager– Contact (Asia)
Email
support.japan@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 10:00am - 6:00pm (JST)

Contact Lodovica Biagi
Lodovica Biagi
Director of Operations– Contact (Europe)
Email
eu.support@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9:30am - 5pm (GMT)

Contact Carolina Dulin
Carolina Dulin
Group Director - LATAM– Contact (Latin America)
Email
latam@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)

Menu