BCG Global Payments Report 2026: Germany makes 196 card payments per capita, the EU 327
According to the Boston Consulting Group’s Global Payments Report 2026, consumers in Germany made 196 card payments per capita in 2025, against an EU average of 327. The figure is growing faster in Germany, at 11.3 per cent, than in the EU. At the same time, 79 per cent of the large merchants surveyed report that their payment costs have risen over five years.
What happened
The Boston Consulting Group published its Global Payments Report 2026, titled “The Burden of Proof”, on 23 September 2026; according to dpa, it is the 24th edition. For Germany, BCG counts around 300 electronic payments per capita in 2025, against around 400 on EU average and around 700 in the Nordic countries. For card payments, Germany stands at 196 per capita, the German-speaking region at 216, the EU at 327, the Nordic countries at 539 and the USA at 647. Card payments per capita rose by 11.3 per cent in Germany and by 7.9 per cent in the EU. BCG also surveyed nearly 500 large merchants with annual revenue of 50 million to 10 billion dollars: 79 per cent say their payment costs have risen over the past five years, and fewer than one in ten managed to reduce them.
Who is affected
Brick-and-mortar retail, hospitality and service providers that are switching from cash to cards or seeing their card volume grow. Also online merchants planning their checkout strategy with acquirers and payment service providers.
Assessment
Germany is no longer a laggard in payments but a catch-up market, and catching up comes at a price. When the number of card payments per capita grows by double digits every year, every fixed per-transaction fee grows with it. When a customer who pays cash today pays by card tomorrow, the merchant does not receive more revenue, but the same amount minus a fee. That is not an argument against cards, but one for clean terms.
What stands out is that even corporations with their own payments department barely manage to cut costs. BCG counts only 12 per cent of respondents who manage payments as a profit contributor, have a dedicated team and route dynamically between providers. The small merchant has none of that; they have a contract. All the more important is what it says. The second figure from the report fits our weekly briefing for week 39: 73 per cent of the large merchants would switch acquirer if another one supported purchases by AI agents better. Whoever owns the payment rail will own the argument too.
What to do now
- Analyse the card statements of the last twelve months by cost per transaction, not only by percentage rate.
- Check what share of fees is charged as a fixed amount per payment, because this part grows most as the card share rises.
- At the next contract discussion, ask for terms for growing volume and insist on a tiered structure.