The Covid-19 pandemic has driven a “global surge” in digital payments with two-thirds of adults worldwide now making or receiving digital payments, rising from 35% in 2014 to 57% in 2021 in developing economies and from 88% in 2014 to 95% in 2021 in high-income economies, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2021 database[1].
The database also shows that, since the start of the pandemic, more than 40% of adults in developing economies other than China made in-store or online payments to merchants using a payment card, mobile phone or the internet for the first time.
More than a third of adults in these economies also used a digital payment method to pay a utility bill for the first time during the pandemic.
The growth in digital payments has been accompanied by an increase in account ownership with 76% of adults globally now having an account at a bank, another financial institution or with a mobile money provider, up from 68% in 2017 and 51% in 2011, the World Bank says.
The uptake of mobile money accounts has been particularly strong in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 33% of adults now have one compared with the 10% global average and this “has become an important enabler of financial inclusion”, according to the research.
In addition to the Covid-19 pandemic, the research identifies “receiving digital payments such as a wage payment, a government transfer or a domestic remittance” as a key driver in the uptake of digital payments and other financial services.
“In developing economies, 36% of adults received a payment into an account. Of those, 83% also reported that they made a digital payment,” the researchers say.
“Almost two-thirds of payment recipients used
