The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has seen the number of monthly digital wallet transactions increase by 90% from 36m in March 2020 to 68m in March this year, with the total value more than doubling from A$2.1bn (US$1.6bn) to A$1bn (US$0.8bn) in the same period.

“The figures highlight the growing popularity of digital wallets and the likelihood for them to become the most popular contactless way to pay in-store by the end of the year, if current trends continue,” the bank says.

The bank’s figures also reveal that the average value of digital wallet transactions has risen from A$41 (US$32) to A$44 (US$34) for credit card payments and A$26 (US$20) to A$29 (US$22) for debit card payments over the past 12 months.

“People mostly use digital wallets to pay for everyday expenses, such as public transport, groceries, food and beverages, retail shopping and petrol,” says CBA’s Kate Crous.

“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.”

A Worldpay from FIS report published in March revealed that “use of mobile wallets accelerated across all regions in 2020” and it predicted that digital wallets will account for 33% of in-store payments worldwide by 2024. 

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