European businesses expand digital payments while retaining cash

Nicosia, Cyprus. Euro area businesses are rapidly adopting digital payments while continuing to rely heavily on cash for privacy, reliability and resilience, according to recently published European Central Bank survey findings.

Cash remains widely accepted

The survey found that 92 per cent of euro area businesses with physical points of sale accept cash, making it the bloc’s most widely accepted payment method.

Cash acceptance rose from 90 per cent in 2024 to 92 per cent in 2026, recovering slightly after declining during and immediately after the pandemic.

Growth in mobile payments

Mobile payment acceptance nearly doubled over two years, rising from 36 per cent of businesses in 2024 to 68 per cent in 2026.

Card acceptance remained broadly stable at 88 per cent.

The figures indicate that digital payment methods are expanding rapidly without displacing cash to the extent that may have been expected after the pandemic.

Privacy and reliability concerns

Businesses continue to view privacy and reliability as major advantages of cash, particularly compared with digital payment methods.

Digital payments can make commerce faster and more efficient, but they also generate records that can potentially be collected, analysed and used in ways that cash transactions do not.

Digital euro relevance

The distinction is relevant to the ECB’s digital euro project, which is intended to provide a digital form of central bank money while retaining some characteristics associated with cash.

The growing use of digital payments and the information generated by everyday transactions could shape the ECB’s case for the digital euro and test how consumer rights are protected.