Fed Studies Confirm U.S. Changing to Electronic-Payments Dominated Economy

The latest payments study from the U.S. Federal Reserve estimates that consumers made 122.8 billion noncash payments in 2012, totaling approximately $79 trillion for a yearly growth rate of 4.4 percent between 2009 and 2012. The Fed noted the growth rate was lower than the average annual rate of 4.7 percent mapped for the decade ending in 2012.

Consumer use of general purpose and private-label credit cards resurged, growing 7.6 percent a year and from 21 billion transactions to 26.2 billion between 2009 and 2012. There was a 6.8 percent annual increase in general purpose credit card use during that period, when cardholders made 26.2 billion credit card payments. Debit cards were the most popular noncash payment option last year with an estimated 47 billion payments, while prepaid debit cards overtook all other noncash payments with 15.8 percent yearly growth to reach 9.2 billion in 2012.

The Fed report, the fifth produced so far, is based on two surveys covering financial institutions, networks, processors, and issuers, and a third survey that looks at check samples from 11 banks. A more detailed report is expected to be released in the spring.

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