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Austria 2026

Market Overview
Payment Organisations Payment Services Austria (PSA)

STUZZA develops methods and standards for payment services.

In 2021, PSA, STUZZA and Austrian OeNB‘s Clearinghouse merged to build the new shared-services-platform and interbank organisation for cashless bank payment services.
Domestic Payment Brands No domestic card brands.
eps, the domestic A2A payment service for online shopping.
Market Structure Most bank cards are debit cards; most credit cards are charge cards. Debit Mastercard cards and VISA Debit cards are replacing Maestro cards. Almost 86% of debit card payments were contactless in 2021.

UniCredit’s Bank Austria, Erste Bank and Raiffeisen, the major Austrian bank players, have built up large banking networks in the CEE/CIS region.

Emerging Open Banking payment ecosystem.
Notable Market Trends MPOS terminals, HCE NFC payment pilots, Debit Mastercard cards, VISA Debit cards, mobile payment apps, immediate payments

Due to the lingering effect of the pandemic, remote payments rose by 23% in volume and 20% in value in 2024.
Major Card Issuers UniCredit Bank Austria, Erste Bank, Raiffeisen Banks, BAWAG P.S.K., Easybank.
Major Card Acquirers Worldline, Card Complete, Hobex, Erste Bank.
Major Card Processors Worldline, EGCP, SIA, and banks’ in-house IT.
Key Statistics 2024
Population

Cards

 9.17 million, with 1.59 cards per capita.

Debit: 11.19 million, thereof Bankomat cards: 10.20 million

Delayed debit: 2.34 million

Credit: 1.08 million

E-money cards: 11.79 million

Total: 26.41 million
Card Payments Debit 1,591.59 million; value €57.56 billion

Delayed debit: 205.86 million; value €15.39 billion

Credit: 89.98 million; value €7.33 billion

Total: 1,891.2 million; value €81.04 billion.
POS Terminals 239,158
POS Payments All cards: 1,568.78 million; value €56.16 billion
ATMs 8,609
ATM Withdrawals All cards: 202.93 million; value €51.00 billion
Digital A2A Payments Credit Transfers: 733.4 million, value: €6,467.34 billion

Direct Debits: 540.9 million, value: €344.80 billion
Note: From 2014, Austrian statistical card reporting is aligned to ECB statistical standards.

Note: Italic forecast figures for 2025F are estimated in the payment market context based on 2024 figures.

Source: ECB, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), PSA.

Introduction – Payments in Austria

Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy, which joined the European Union in 1995, and the euro zone in 1999.

Austria has a high level of cash usage compared to its central European neighbours, but bank account penetration is high, and Austrian consumers are prolific users of online bank transfers for payments. In recent years, contactless has grown rapidly and has helped debit card usage to gain significant traction. In particular, the migration of Maestro cards to Debit Mastercard products has helped increase their usage online. However, the usage of credit/delayed debit cards also continues to be popular.

Austrian banks’ usage of digital customer onboarding has helped to familiarise consumers with digital services, and these are expected to form a much greater proportion of overall banking transactions over the next few years.

The adoption of the revised Payment Services Directive, PSD2, and disruptive technologies have set the stage for digital payments for the digital economy in Austria. They have accelerated digital payment transformation and mobile payment services, as well as cardless IBAN-based payments directly from bank accounts.

In the last decade, Austrian consumers have embraced mobile devices such as tablets, smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT). This change significantly impacts their shopping experience. Consumers have become increasingly connected and they have started to purchase anywhere, at any time, from any device.

In addition, new consumer demands are a game changer. Austrian consumers like digital banking apps with access to all their accounts at different banks in one single app, with the option to make payments directly from their bank account of choice. Additionally, they appreciate more banking services and payment services added to their mobile banking app. Consumer adoption of digital payments in Austria is driven by minimal cost, secure payments and a high level of user convenience.

Driven by the development of social media and mobile devices, the emergence of permanently connected consumers has impacted their interactions with brands but also their expectations of how to shop using the increasing number of touch points between consumers and merchants, e.g.:

The ongoing rollout of a mature online and mobile communication infrastructure is an enabler for digital card payment transformation and for Open Banking payments in Austria.

In a few years from now, mobile banking apps and mobile payment apps are expected to combine account management, digital payment services, personal finance management and value-added digital services from location finders to digital vouchers.

Cash payments, card payments and cardless payments directly from bank accounts (A2A payments) remain all relevant for Austrian merchants and are heavily used by Austrian consumers.

This country profile provides an introduction into two competing payment ecosystems in Austria:

Legal Framework for Payment Services

The legal framework for European payment services is a joint project undertaken by the European Commission as the regulator, the European Central Bank (ECB) as the Euro System, and the European Payments Council (EPC) with the objective of standardising payments in Europe and to remove existing barriers, promote cross-border competition between payment services, strengthen the European internal market and drive the digital payment transformation.

Based on its vision, the EU Commission has therefore created a unique legal framework for cashless B2C and B2B payments that supersedes pre-existing national legislation and is binding for financial service providers and payment service providers throughout the EU.

Austria has largely transposed this legal framework into their national payment legislation.

Historically, there has been a de facto national regulation of all Austrian payment schemes with high technical barriers to ensure and defend payment security.

With the implementation of the payment services directive, all payment services in Austria are based on the unique legal framework for payment services of the European Commission effective in the European Economic Area (EEA).

In addition, the respective rules and regulations of the domestic card scheme and the international card schemes continue to be applied by the card payment service providers (e.g. EMV, PCI, RTS SCA, and SEPA Cards Framework), respectively.

Legal Framework relevant for Payment Services in Austria

The revised Payment Services Directive, PSD2, had established a legal and regulatory framework for payment services providers, enforcing several protections for their clients such as safeguarding of funds; and required them to execute processes in accordance with banking regulations, such as KYC and AML. It has already resulted in significant progress regarding the integration of the European retail payments markets.

Following the alignment with the EEA region, the legal framework for payment services in Austria includes the directives and regulations of the European Commission (EC), the ECB, and/or the national central bank (NCB) of the individual country.

All card payment service providers and all cardless payment service providers of the Open Banking payment ecosystem must apply for the European legal framework including:

Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2)
PSD2 is the key directive for borderless banking and payment services in Europe.
Among others, PSD2 regulates digital payment services and payment service providers such as payment institutions, e-money institutions, payment initiation service providers and account information service providers. PSD2 formulates the Open Banking Mandate for regulated access to payment accounts.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – effective from May 2018
GDPR establishes a regulatory framework for customer control of their data through consent mechanisms, the right to be forgotten and the right to retrieve all personal data for re-use at other service providers of choice, thereby preventing a ‘lock-in’ situation.

E-Money Directive (EMD)
The EMD sets out the rules on the business and supervision of e-money institutions.

Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD)
The AMLD6 aims to improve the harmonisation of the criminal liability of money laundering and terrorist financing across the EU27.

Customer Rights Directive (CRD)
CRD gives consumers the same strong rights across the EU. It aligns and harmonises national consumer rules, for example on the information consumers need to be given before they purchase something, and their right to cancel online purchases, wherever they shop in the EU.

EU Price Regulation for cross-border payments
In 2001, Regulation (EC) No 2560/2001, followed in 2009 by Regulation (EC) No 924/2009, fixed uniform underlying conditions for processing cross-border payments in euro, and the fees for intra-EU cross-border payments in euro were aligned with those for domestic payments in euro.

SEPA End-Date Regulation
SEPA payment instruments replaced domestic A2A payment instrument formats for euro payments.

Card Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR)
The IFR caps interchange fees for payments with consumer cards, effective from 9 December 2015. It increases transparency on fees thus permitting retailers to know the level of fees paid when accepting cards.

Domestic bank service laws
Complementary to EC directives and EC regulations.

Characteristics of the PSD2 Outlook: PSD3 and PSR

The adoption of PSD2 has formalised the relationship between banks and trusted payment providers (TPPs) by establishing the Open Banking Mandate providing open access to customer account data and the payments infrastructure. This is expected to stimulate the FinTech market to develop new integrated services models for both consumer and business customers.

This regulation is a reaction to the growing demand from customers as mobile and internet applications have become widely adopted, driving expectations in how services should be delivered across all industries. Other market segments have adopted Open Banking APIs to respond to this demand and shown that innovative applications can grow business and change customer behaviour.

PSD2 has a significant impact on the European payments industry. According to the EC, the revised Payment Services Directive brings several new important elements and improvements to the EU payment market e.g.:

In 2022, the regulator started a PSD2 review process, which will end up in a revised PSD2 dubbed PSD3. While consultations are currently ongoing, the revisions are expected to address the achievements of the PSD2 and evaluate the need for a revised standard.

Proposed EC Revisions to the EU Payment Services Regulation – PSD3 and PSR 

In June 2023, the European Commission (EC) published its proposed revisions to EU payment services legislation, as well as a proposal on Open Finance/data access in the financial services sector beyond Open Banking/payment accounts in the form of a new Open Finance framework called “FIDA”.

Essentially, the EC is proposing that PSD2 would be split into two different instruments. These will ensure consumers can continue to make electronic payments and transactions safely and securely in the EU, domestically or cross-border, in euro and non-euro. Whilst safeguarding their rights, it also aims to provide greater choice of payment service providers on the market:

The objective of the regulation is to enhance harmonisation of the rules and enforcement across the various EU Member States. In addition, the EC proposed to merge the E-Money Directive (EMD2) with the proposed PSD3 and PSR texts, so as to have one coherent regime for both payment services and e-money services, and thereby ensure a level-playing field between PIs and EMIs.

PSD3 also amends the Settlement Finality Directive (SFD) in order to allow non-bank PSPs (e.g. PIs and EMIs) to participate directly in SFD-designated payment systems. Fintechs will be given access to all EU payment systems, with appropriate safeguards, and giving them a right to have a bank account. That way, those non-bank PSPs would no longer need to rely on banks in order to execute payment transactions.

A system to check IBANs and a platform to enable payment service providers to share fraud-related information are two proposals around consumer protection, including an extension to all credit transfers of IBAN/name-matching verification services. These have been proposed by the Commission for instant payments in Euro. All consumers should benefit from them, for both regular and instant credit transfers.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) is given once again a number of mandates under PSD3 and the PSR to prepare draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) and draft implementing technical standards (ITS), ultimately to be adopted by the EC, as well as guidelines, and to continue maintaining the register.

In 2024, significant progress was made in updating PSD2. In April 2024, the European Parliament adopted the European Commission’s proposals for PSD3 and PSR at first reading. While the exact timelines for enforcement are not yet confirmed, it is anticipated that the finalised versions of PSD3 and PSR may become available by 2025.

In 2025, the EU made substantial progress toward finalising PSD3 and PSR, marking the next major phase in the evolution of Europe’s payment services framework. In June 2025, the Council of the EU reached agreement on compromise texts for both legislative instruments, subsequently endorsed by COREPER (the Committee of Permanent Representatives), enabling the start of trilogue negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission.

These negotiations aim to align positions on key issues, including liability for payment fraud, direct access of non-bank payment service providers to payment systems, and strengthened consumer protection. Final adoption and publication of the legislative package are expected by late 2025, after which the PSR will apply directly across all EU Member States, while PSD3 will require national transposition within approximately 12–18 months. This means the new framework could come into practical effect during 2026–2027.

The 2025 developments reaffirm the EU’s objective to harmonise payment regulation, enhance security and consumer rights, and create a more competitive and innovative payments landscape across the single market.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in the European Union (EU). Since the Regulation applies regardless of where websites are based, it must be heeded by all sites that attract European visitors, even if they don’t specifically market goods or services to EU residents.

Adopted in April 2016, the Regulation came into full effect in May 2018, after a two-year transition period. The GDPR replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and is designed to:

The GDPR mandates that EU visitors to all websites must be given a number of data disclosures. Sites must also take steps to facilitate such EU consumer rights as timely notification in the event of personal data being breached (breach notification). Among others, the GDPR mandates the user’s right to access their data and the right to be forgotten. In addition, the conditions for consent have been strengthened, and companies are no longer able to use long, illegible terms and conditions full of legalese. Also, it must be as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it.

eIDAS Regulation and Digital ID Trends

The electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services regulation (eIDAS) is a set of EU standards and regulations for electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the European Single Market. It was established in the EU Regulation as of 23 July 2014, relating to electronic identification, and repeals directive 1999/93/EC from December 1999. It entered into force on 17 September 2014 and applies from 1 July 2016 except for certain articles, listed under its Article 52.

In June 2021, the European Commission proposed an update to eIDAS that will enable every European to have a set of digital identity credentials recognised anywhere in the EU. In May 2024, Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 entered into force, formally establishing the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet under the revised eIDAS 2.0 framework. The regulation requires all EU Member States to provide at least one interoperable digital identity wallet within 24 months of the adoption of the implementing acts, placing the expected rollout across the EU by late 2026.

Throughout 2025, the European Commission has continued to issue implementing regulations defining the wallet’s technical architecture, certification procedures, and security requirements. The framework embeds privacy-by-design, data minimisation, and user consent principles, ensuring data remains under user control and stored locally on the user’s device.

Pilot projects launched between 2023 and 2025 have been finalising testing across Member States to validate interoperability, usability, and cross-border functionality. From 2026 onward, public and private entities that require strong electronic identification will be expected to recognise and accept the EUDI Wallet for secure authentication and digital transactions across the EU.

Many digital ID schemes operate based on super-secure passwords and/or mobile apps confirmed by a second factor, either passwords or one-time token or biometric factors such as fingerprints.

Digital ID in Europe has been proliferating rapidly in recent years. To date, both the nature of these schemes and their application have varied widely – for example, BankIDs in the Nordics being used to support instant payments and the delivery of harmonised government services.

Digital ID in Austria: legal framework and history

On December 5, 2023, Austria switched from its previous state-led digital signature technology, “Handy-Signatur” to ID Austria. “Handy-Signatur” arose from a 2003 initiative created by mobilkom Austria known as “A1-Signatur”, which was first launched in 2007 and developed under the EU programme STORK (Secure IdenTity AcrOss boRders linKed).

“Handy-Signatur”, as the name suggests, was a digitalized signature that enabled sign-in and signature of documents via mobile phone. In its early versions, consumer doubts plus limited campaigning from mobile companies meant that adoption was limited. However, the number of Austrians using “Handy-Signatur” rose from 50,000 to 300,000 between 2012 and 2014, thanks to its propagation not just via mobile device, but also using a chip-enabled smartcard on which a digital signature was stored.

A 2014 study by the Austrian government found that 69% of those polled wanted to see the “Handy-Signatur” facility combined with state access cards for social and healthcare services. Accordingly, the Austrian foreign ministry ran pilot projects through its embassies in London, Madrid, Berlin and the consulate in Munich to enable Austrians to apply for a card-based solution that combined e-signatures with access information to social services such as Social Security Numbers, Date of Birth and others.

The roll-out of the new system was enabled for both current and previous generations of smartphone and activated for roaming purposes (i.e. Austrians abroad). The net result was that 1.8 million Austrians (21% of the population) were using the system by the end of 2018, with a further 30-40,000 adopting the system each month up to 2021.

ID Austria was introduced as a pilot scheme in 2021, with switch-over from “Handy-Signatur” to ID Austria enabled from mid-2022. At the end of 2023, all existing users were being migrated from “Handy-Signatur” to ID Austria. ID Austria includes two levels of functionality, as follows:

Currently, 1,618,420 people are already registered with ID-Austria and have access to more than 400 connected services, including digital driving licences (390,000) and digital proof of age (59,000).  In a November 2023 press release, State Secretary for Digitalisation and Telecommunications, Florian Tursky confirmed that ID Austria complied with the requirements of eIDAS 2.0 for pan-European digital ID and noted that the intention was to enable ID Austria with a digital wallet which could be used across the EU, as well as granting access to services for Austrian citizens across the bloc.

Current implementations

At present, ID Austria can be used by businesses to register for e-invoicing in public procurement tenders – a process the government made mandatory as long ago as 2014. Until recently, private sector implementations of digital ID have been relatively limited, however this changed after the pandemic accelerated the shift to a digital economy.

In 2022, The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) changed its directives for online identification, amending the Austrian Anti-Money Laundering Act (Austrian AMLA) to allow fully automated biometrics for remote identity verification. The change permits banks and other companies to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements using a variety of remote identity verification methods, including online verification of ID documents to biometric capture or Liveness Detection verified via video recording. From January 2023 onwards, photo IDs must be verified via NFC communication between (for example) passports and NFC-enabled devices equipped with cameras such as smart phones and tablets.

For some time, banks including Erste Bank and its subsidiary Sparkasse, Bank Austria and others have rolled out video identification for corporate and individual customer accounts. Customers receive an e-mail inviting them to a video ID session, which the customer initiates by clicking on a link and accessing the session via a PIN number provided for the purpose. The user is guided through the process by an advisor, and the process requires a passport or driver’s license as a second identification factor. Following successful identification, the user receives a code on their mobile device to confirm the process is completed. Some banks now use this process to enable account opening as well as signature on higher-risk business lines such as mortgages and insurance.

Erste Bank’s George Digital Banking Service and Bank Austria’s Mobile Banking now use Face and Touch ID as well as QR codes as part of the identification process. To date, however, Austria is distinguished by having a public sector with a comprehensive digital ID system which has yet to be fully embraced by the private sector other than the above initiatives and the “A-Trust” e-signature facilities discussed earlier.

Future Perspectives

The recent rise in ID-related fraud covered earlier in this report implies a requirement for promulgating digital ID as part of the transaction process for banks, not to mention client onboarding, document signature and other functions. There is no doubt that e-commerce and digital business generally in Austria will benefit from the wider use of digital ID: models for the development of digital ID could include Norway’s BankID or Denmark’s MitID, both of which combine the existing functions of ID Austria with commercial and banking applications.

Biometric Authentication Services

As a form of digital identity, biometric factors have been gaining ground across Europe in recent years, especially since the EU mandated their use for national ID cards and passports from August 2021.

In the payments industry, European banks and other account servicing payment service providers (ASPSPs) have started to support new biometrics technology companies that will develop client identification and authentication systems. They will be dedicated to the research and development of software for the digital verification and authentication of personal identity, through facial, voice, image or document recognition, or fingerprint reading.

With the EU regulator’s decision to mandate Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) as part of the revised payment services directive, PSD2, biometric authentications look set to grow further in importance as part of the payments landscape.

Companies such as Sweden’s Fingerprints (for online payment ID) and the UK’s Fingopay (for physical payments) have pioneered their use in P2P and P2B transactions, while some national ID schemes such as BankID in the Nordics and nemID now include biometric factors alongside PIN in their log-in processes.

Fingerprints (Sweden): Continues to lead development of biometric sensors, especially for fingerprint-enabled payment cards and mobile devices in Europe, supporting both remote (online) payment ID and card-based transactions since 2025.​

Fingopay (UK): Specialises in vein recognition systems for physical payments, with deployments in retail, hospitality, and transport, pioneering biometric authentication for point-of-sale transactions and peer-to-peer (P2P) settings.​

National ID Schemes: Nordic BankID services (Sweden, Norway) and Denmark’s NemID (transitioning to MitID) now commonly offer biometric log-in options—such as face and fingerprint authentication—alongside traditional PIN/password, used for identification in financial, public, and private sector services.

Biometric Authentication in European Payments

Additional Trends and Initiatives for 2025

Mastercard Identity Check – Mastercard launched Identity Check in October 2016, pioneering biometric authentication for online card payments across much of Europe.​ 3D Secure (EMV 3DS) is the framework enabling these secure authentications, often using SMS codes, push approvals, or biometrics (fingerprint/face).​

Since 2024, Mastercard has expanded Identity Attribute Verification services, integrating them with new European Digital Identity Wallet pilot programs. This supports not only consumer-to-merchant payments but also richer identity checks (age, address), further reducing friction without compromising security.​

Today, 2-factor authentication for Mastercard payments may use one-time codes, fingerprint/face recognition in mobile apps, and sometimes dedicated hardware or behavioural biometrics, complying with PSD2’s Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) mandate.​

Mastercard Identity Check (EMV 3-D Secure) is supported in all European Economic Area (EEA) countries, the United Kingdom, and most other European markets, along with global acceptance in North America, APAC, and Latin America through Mastercard’s international network.​

For Europe specifically, this means Mastercard Identity Check is available in at least 30 countries (all EEA states plus the UK, Switzerland, and several others). The number continues to grow with compliance expansion and global merchant adoption.

Banking Sector

Österreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) is the national Central Bank of Austria and Österreichische Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA) acts as the Federal Competition Authority for all banking operations. The legal framework in which Austrian financial institutions and companies operate is based on European Union directives and Austrian banking laws.

Austrian banks face a limited and mature home market with 9.17 million Austrians. But based on traditional business relations retained since K&K times, the Austrian banks have progressed to become leading European bank players by investing in the CEE/CIS region. Buying various originally state-owned banks in the CEE/CIS countries since 2000, the Austrian banks had achieved in some CEE countries aggregated market shares of up to 30% to 40%.

On 4 November 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB), via the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), assumed the responsibility of supervising the financial stability of banks operating within the euro zone. However, while the ECB has final supervisory authority over all banks operating within the euro zone, it will only directly supervise those banks classified as ‘significant’ under the terms of the SSM (by July 2025, 114 significant banking groups have been recognised). All other ‘less significant’ banks will continue to be supervised by the Österreichische Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA), alongside the OeNB.

In late 2021, the list of significant entities directly supervised by the ECB across Europe contained 115 institutions, seven of which were banks established in Austria.  The list of significant Austrian banks grew from 6 to 7 in October 2020, when Addiko Bank was added to reflect its significant cross-border activities in Croatia.

During 2020, the COVID-19 crisis affected Austria’s economy, with the service sector and retail trade badly affected by the crisis. Austrian GDP declined by 6.8% in 2020, with growth forecasts for 2021 ranging from around 2% to 3.5%. Pandemic-related containment measures continued to weigh on Austria’s economy in 2021, until mid-year when restrictions were lifted and tourism resumed, leading to Austrian GDP expanding by 4.7% in 2021. In 2022, GDP increased by a strong 4.8% driven by growth in the service sector and consumption. However, in 2023, Austria’s economy contracted by 0.8% due to subdued purchasing power, high energy prices and sharp interest rate hikes by the ECB. In 2024, the economy further contracted by 1.2% due to slump in manufacturing and industrial sectors as well as weak investment and exports.

Inflation stood at 1.4% in 2020, impacted by crude oil prices as well as the drop in demand caused by the pandemic. For the reporting year as a whole, consumer price growth as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) came to 2.8%. Annual inflation rate increase to 8.6% in 2022 due to the price development of household energy, fuels, and food.

In 2023, the inflation rate in Austria fell to 5.7% due to household energy, which used to be one of the main drivers of inflation and is now having a dampening effect on inflation. By 2024, inflation eased to 2.9% due to falling prices for household energy.

Structure

According to OeNB, Austria is one of the world’s most bank-intensive countries. The Austrian market is very concentrated with three leading bank groups with large CEE/CIS regional banking networks, four smaller bank groups and a number of regional commercial banks.

The Austrian retail banking market is made up of five sectors: savings banks, commercial banks, Raiffeisen banks, Volksbank banks, and mortgage banks (Hypo banks) diversified into retail banking. According to OeNB, there were 458 credit institutions in 2024, composed out of 36 commercial banks, 49 savings banks, nine Volksbanken banks, 296 Raiffeisen banks, and six Hypo banks.

Additionally, there were 17 foreign bank branches of EEA-based banks and six representative offices of foreign non-EEA-based banks that all operate in Austria.

1 - Overview of Financial Institutions by Sector
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Commercial banks37353535362.86%-14.29%-3.04%
Savings banks49494949490.00%0.00%0.00%
Raiffeisen banks354338315296284-4.05%-25.26%-5.66%
Volksbank banks999990.00%0.00%0.00%
Mortgage banks (HYPO)866660.00%-25.00%-5.59%
Building and loan associations444440.00%0.00%0.00%
Branches of foreign banks2422201817-5.56%-22.73%-5.03%
other Austrian banks5857555553-3.64%-10.17%-2.12%
Total number of credit institutions543520493472458-2.97%-20.07%-4.38%
Total number of branches3,1333,4383,2973,1953,151-1.38%-10.51%-2.20%
Total bank assets (€bn)1,1361,1971,2001,2161,2654.03%22.50%4.14%
Source: OeNB.

The leading bank groups are UniCredit Bank Austria, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) and Erste Group Bank. These bank groups have much larger banking network operations in CEE than in Austria.

The smaller bank groups include BAWAG P.S.K., Volksbank Wien AG (successor of OeVAG), 3 Banken Gruppe (Oberbank, BKS Bank, BTV), Austrian Anadi Bank and Addiko Bank.

Only Addiko Bank has member banks in Southeast Europe while BAWAG P.S.K. and Volksbank divested their CEE member banks following the financial crisis of 2008. Foreign banks in Austria include Santander Consumer Bank (E). ING Bank announced in March 2021 that it would undertake a strategic review of its Austrian retail banking operations with a view to discontinuing activities by the end of 2021. ING will continue its wholesale banking business in Austria.

In December 2017, VTB Group (RUS) completed the restructuring of its European sub-holding. VTB Bank (Austria), VTB Bank (Deutschland) and VTB Bank (France) were merged into a new legal entity called VTB Bank (Europe), which operated based on a single banking licence.

In early 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, VTB Bank was 1 of several Russian financial institutions across Europe that was immediately sanctioned by international authorities. In March 2022, VTB announced it would be winding down its European operations, after having its assets frozen. VTB’s move followed the decision by Sberbank to exit the central and eastern European market, with its Austrian unit becoming the first bank to fail following the imposition of the financial sanction’s regime.

However, VTB Bank Europe, although owned by VTB, is a subsidiary which is no longer managed by the Russian bank and continues to operate.

2 - Leading Austrian Banks 2024
BankOwnershipTotal Assets (€bn)Market share %
Erste Group BankAustrian Savings banks (A)353.734.2%
Raiffeisenbank International (RBI)Raiffeisen Banks (A): 61.17%, free float: 38.83%199.919.3%
Raiffeisen Banks Austrian Raiffeisen banks (A)205.119.8%
UniCredit Bank AustriaUniCredit Group (I): 99.96%105.310.2%
Österreichische SparkassenAustrian Savings banks (A)85.08.2%
BAWAG P.S.K.BAWAG free float:100%71.36.9%
Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB)OeKB Group (A)34.63.3%
Association of Volksbank BanksVolksbanken banks (A)32.13.1%
Oberbank3 Banken Gruppe28.42.7%
Bank fur Tirol und Vorarlberg (BTV)3 Banken Gruppe15.41.5%
BKS Bank3 Banken Gruppe11.11.1%
DenizBankDenizBank (TR)6.30.6%
Austrian Anadi BankAnadi Financial Holding (SGP)2.50.2%
Addiko BankInstitutional investors: 53.56%, other investors: 46.44%1.20.1%
leading banks total1,151.8111.4%
other banks-117.4-11.4%
Total1,034.4100.0%
Note: Raiffeisen Bank International's total assets include the merged RZB, but excludes the 327 local Raiffeisen banks.
Note: total assets are as at end-2022.
Source: Yearbook research.

Bank Austria, ultimately owned by UniCredit, is Austria’s largest individual bank. HypoVereinsbank (HVB), Germany’s second largest bank, acquired Bank Austria for €7.8 billion in August 2000 and in May 2001 merged Bank Austria and its Creditanstalt subsidiary. The merger created Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA), operating with a single brand and branch network in Austria.

With the June 2005 merger, UniCredit (I) and HVB/BA-CA (D/A) created the biggest CEE/CIS banking network. From 2005 up to end-2015, Bank Austria was made responsible for nearly all UniCredit CEE/CIS activities as well as for those in Turkey. The exceptions are Poland and Ukraine, which are managed directly by UniCredit Italy. This exclusive responsibility agreement was signed for ten years.

Since the expiration of the responsibility agreement with Bank Austria after ten years, in November 2015, UniCredit Group (I) decided to transform the responsibility for the UniCredit member banks in the CEE/CIS region from Bank Austria to UniCredit Group (I) (see below).

As of 31 December 2016, Bank Austria’s total assets after the CEE demerger declined to €105.8 billion. The significant reduction of about 45% in total assets compared with the previous year was largely explained by the transfer of CEE business to the Group’s parent company.

From October 2012, Bank-Austria was the 100% owner of DC Bank AG, the Diners Club franchise for Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and also, from April 2014, Germany. However, in September 2015, Bank-Austria sold DC Bank to its majority subsidiary Card Complete Service Bank.

As of 2024, Bank Austria had 102 branches and served 1.5 million retail and small business clients and about 15,000 corporate clients.

During 2020, Bank Austria’s main objective was to expand and strengthen the customer base through more efficient and optimised products and services, while all strategic initiatives are essentially driven by the improvement of the customer experience. The central transformation goal of a “paperless bank” will be implemented by 2023 in all Western Europe markets of UniCredit, including Bank Austria.

Including Bank Austria, UniCredit will improve the service model for its retail customers, in particular by means of a further optimised mix of online and offline channels. The focus is on direct channels for customer service and transactions, so that sales can take more of a consulting approach. UniCredit is also focusing on further expansion of digital solutions such as video consulting or digital contract signing in the corporate customer sector, particularly in the support of SMEs.

Erste Bank – Die Erste Foundation, which is Erste’s majority shareholder, signed a cooperation agreement in June 2009 with Barcelona-based La Caixa. As well as mutual business cooperation, La Caixa increased its stake in Erste to 5.1%. At end-2024, Erste Group had a total of 16.6 million customers across Europe, with 4.3 million customers in Austria served through 743 branches.

In October 2021, Spain’s La Caixa announced it was selling its entire 9.92% stake in Erste Group, worth around €1.6 billion, as part of La Caixa’s efforts to comply with harsher solvency requirements and regulators and refocus on core banking business. In early November 2021, CaixaBank sold its 9.92% stake in Erste Group. This move had been expected after CaixaBank’s merger with Bankia, which created Spain’s biggest financial institution.

The syndicate is led by Erste Foundation and including Sparkassenbeteiligungs GmbH & Co KG, savings banks foundations, Wiener Städtische Wechselseitiger Versicherungsverein and Erste Mitarbeiterbeteiligung Privatstiftung remained the leading shareholder of Erste Group. As of 31 December 2024, the syndicate held a total stake of 25.41%.

Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) – The roughly 280 autonomous Raiffeisen (co-operative) banks operate the country’s biggest banking network of 1,391 affiliated branches.

RBI regards Austria as its home market. Subsidiary banks cover 13 markets across the CEE region, serving 17.9 million customers, and 3 million in Austria served through 19 dedicated branches. In 2023, the regional Raiffeisen banks held approximately 61.17% of RBI shares, with the remaining approximately shares held in free float.

The 280 Raiffeisen banks are universal banks that provide a full range of banking services and are also the owners of their respective regional Raiffeisen banks. The regional Raiffeisen banks (Raiffeisen Landesbanken and Raiffeisenverband) provide liquidity balancing and other central services for the Raiffeisen banks in their area of activity. In turn, the regional Raiffeisen banks are connected to RBI AG through its role as the central institution of the RBG.

In December 2017, RBI became the first Austrian banking group to join the R3 distributed ledger (DLT) consortium.

BAWAG P.S.K., the sixth biggest Austrian bank, had more than 2 million customers in 2024. Following a period of mismanagement and loan losses, BAWAG P.S.K. was put up for sale in 2007 and was acquired in May by a consortium headed by the US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management and, in 2012, GoldenTree Asset Management.

In July 2017, BAWAG P.S.K. acquired Südwestbank (D), headquartered in Stuttgart, a medium-sized regional private bank that has been offering commercial banking services in Baden-Württemberg since 1922. The bank is focused on retail, corporate, and private banking, and compliments BAWAG P.S.K.’s business model while providing a solid foundation for growth in the German market.

In October 2017, BAWAG P.S.K. applied for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in a partial share sale valued at approximately €1.93 billion. In 2019, the free float amounted to 78.2% with private equity investors Golden Tree (21.8%) for the balance. During the year, BAWAG received approval for a €400 million share buyback which was executed in November 2019. Long-time shareholder Cerberus, a private equity firm, exited its shareholding during 2019, increasing the free float from approximately 40% to 78.2% by year-end 2019. In 2021 Golden reduced its stake to 12.5%, and to 5% in January 2022.

Previously, in May 2004, control of BAWAG P.S.K. passed to OeGB, the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions, which part owned BAWAG with Bayerische Landesbank. In 2000, OeGB and Bayerische Landesbank joined forces to acquire Austrian Postal Savings Bank (PSK), Austria’s fifth-largest bank.

Austrian Post, part of the BAWAG P.S.K. group, previously used Austria’s network of around 1,900 post offices as access points to its domestic payments system. During 2019, BAWAG implemented its stand-alone strategy in Austria, Concept 21, marking BAWAG’s full separation from Austrian Post, allowing it to run a stand-alone branch network of 88 branches. At the same time, it enhanced its digital capabilities by launching its POS finance offering and releasing its new mobile banking app “klar”.

Although BAWAG belatedly followed the other Austrian banks into the CEE markets, with purchases of banks in Czech Republic and Slovakia, the new management has since sold these businesses.

In 2020, the merger of easybank with BAWAG was completed and the merger of the German Südwestbank with BAWAG initiated. In both cases, the acquired units no longer have their own banking license, and the back offices are centralised to take advantage of cost advantages. The easybank and Südwestbank brands will be retained.

In 2021, BAWAG acquired Hello bank! Austria, an online brokerage platform to complement its Austrian retail and SME franchise, and DEPFA Group, an Irish public sector bank. It also announced the purchase of Peak Bancorp, the holding company of Idaho First Bank (IFB) in the US.

As of 2021, BAWAG had fully digitised 75% of its product portfolio and is targeting a 100% fully digitised retail and SME product offering by 2025. During 2021, BAWAG reported that 79% of product sales came through non-branch origination.

Association of Volksbank Banks, is the central institution of the 13 Volksbank banks in the Volksbank sector from May 2015. Volksbank banks focus on small- and medium-sized businesses but also maintains a retail presence. Volksbank Wien is the largest Volksbank and manages the association.

In 2015, a significant restructuring process took place. In May 2015, Volksbank Wien resolved that it would assume the central organisation function from Österreichische Voksbanken AG (OeVAG). From July 2015, OeVAG was split into Association of Volksbank Banks at Volksbank Wien, Immo-Bank and the bad bank Imigon Portfolioabbau AG. Under the restructuring process the Volksbank banks were merged to form eight regional providers and two specialist banks (8+2 structure). As a result, nine Volksbank mergers were complete in 2015.

Until end-2011, old OeVAG had managed a network of Volksbank banks in nine countries outside Austria and claimed 1.53 million customer accounts as at end-2010.

In September 2011, OeVAG sold eight Volksbank member banks in the CEE region to the state-owned Russian Sberbank (excluded: Volksbank Romania). The deal was closed in February 2012. In December 2014, OeVAG sold Volksbank Romania to Banca Transilvania (RO). The deal was closed in April 2015.

As of November 2012, Volksbank International AG (VBI) and previously the Eastern European banking subsidiary of Volksbank became Sberbank Europe AG. Sberbank Europe manages a network of nine universal banks in eight Central and Eastern European countries: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia and Serbia. In 2016 Sberbank Europe sold its Slovakian subsidiary, followed by the sale of its Ukrainian subsidiary in 2017. All of the eight Volksbank member banks transferred to Sberbank became rebranded as Sberbank in 2013.

As of 2021, Sberbank Europe, based in Vienna, was present in 8 markets in Central and Eastern Europe: Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sberbank was placed under sanctions by international authorities. In March 2022, Sberbank Europe was closed by order of the ECB, which had warned it faced failure due to a run on deposits after Russia invaded Ukraine, according to Austria’s Financial Market Authority. In October 2022, it was announced that Sberbank Austria was in an orderly liquidation process. In June 2023, Sberbank announced the sale of its Austrian subsidiary to an Austrian company.

Addiko Bank – operates with six banks in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. It reported 155 branches and around 900,000 customers at end-2024.

Addiko Group consists of Addiko Bank AG, the listed and fully licensed Austrian parent bank registered in Vienna, Austria, regulated by the Austrian Financial Markets Authority and by the European Central Bank, as well as six subsidiary banks, registered, licensed, and operating in five CSEE countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina (where it operates via two banks), Serbia and Montenegro.

Predecessor Hypo-Group Alpe-Adria (HGAA), formerly owned 67% by Bayerische Landesbank and 20% by Grawe, an Austrian insurer, operates in the south-east of Austria and has expanded into neighbouring regions, especially northern Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.

In 2008-9, HGAA became a victim of the banking crisis. Under pressure from the government of Bavaria, Bayern LB declined to participate in an equity capital increase required by HGAA at end-2009 and effectively forfeited its shareholding. HGAA consequently fell under the control of the Austrian authorities, and its banking operations continue on this basis.

In 2015 Advent International (Advent) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) acquired the Southeast Europe banking network (SEE-Network) of Hypo Group Alpe Adria from the Austrian state. The acquisition was formally closed in May 2015. In July 2016, HGAA was rebranded as Addiko Bank.

In June 2019, Addiko Bank launched an initial public offering, following its restructuring. In March 2020, the EBRD swapped its indirect stake in Addiko Bank for a direct stake of 8.4%. It previously held an indirect stake in Addiko via a private special purpose vehicle.

Austrian Anadi Bank – In May 2013, HGAA sold its Austrian subsidiary, Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank, to private investor Anadi Financial Holdings Pte Ltd. In June 2014, Austrian Hypo-Alpe Adria Bank was rebranded and became Austrian Anadi Bank. In 2023, it reported 58,000 clients and 10 branches. In September 2024, Anadi Bank completed a spin‑off of its branch network and most of its SME (KMU) business in Carinthia: the 10 branches around 42,000 retail customers, 250 SME customers, and a customer business volume of nearly €1.7 billion were transferred to Bank Burgenland (part of GRAWE Banking Group).

Digital Challenger Banks

A number of digital-only challenger banks have entered the Austrian banking market. They already have a clear Open Banking strategy in place.

In parallel, many Austrian banks co-operate and partner with trusted digital payment providers and FinTechs to prepare for the Open Banking ecosystem, enrich their digital banking services, and to offer additional mobile banking app features.

Easybank (BAWAG P.S.K. Group) – With approximately 1.5 million customer accounts across the group, Easybank is one of Austria’s most profitable digital banks. In 2020, the merger of easybank with BAWAG was completed.

N26 (Number26) is a digital-only provider of mobile banking. N26 launched in Germany and Austria in 2015. In July 2016, N26 was awarded a full banking licence in Germany. In April 2017, N26 launched its first mobile-only business account (see Germany profile).

bunq – In March 2017, mobile-only bank bunq (NL) arrived in Germany and Austria. Describing itself as an IT company with a full Dutch banking license, bunq launched in late 2015, offering customers personal and business accounts managed through its mobile app. bunq released an open API to give developers the chance to create their own apps using its real-time payment system (see Netherlands profile).

In September 2021, bunq partnered with Austria’s Paysafe payments platform to enable cash deposits for digital banking via the bunq mobile app. After selecting Paysafecash as the top-up method in their app, the customer chooses how much cash to deposit into the account and generates a unique barcode for the transaction. The customer can then go to a nearby payment point, scan the barcode at the point of sales terminal and make the payment in cash.

Revolut, the UK-based digital bank established in July 2015 was licensed as e-money institution by the UK regulator, the FCA. Revolut offers digital bank accounts free of charge combined with a mobile app with instant money send function and a prepaid Mastercard to individual customers and small business clients in the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland. As of mid-2023, it claimed to have more than 65 million customers worldwide. In September 2017, Revolut launched its service in Austria (see UK profile).

International CEE/CIS Retail Banking Networks 

Erste Group – Erste’s biggest operations are Ceska Sporitelna, the Czech Republic’s second largest bank, and Banca Comerciala Romana in Romania, which it bought for €3.75 billion in December 2005. Another important investment is Slovenska Sporitelna, the Slovak Republic’s largest bank, where Erste increased its shareholding to 100% in 2005. In 2002, Erste acquired a majority stake in Rijecka Banka of Croatia, which was subsequently merged into Erste Bank and renamed in 2003. In September 2003, Erste outbid HVB/BA-CA to acquire Postabank, the ninth-biggest Hungarian bank.

In July 2008, Erste made its first Russian investment with the purchase of 9.8% (2020: 9.09%) of Bank Center-Invest, a regional bank headquartered in Rostov; EBRD holds 17.82% of the bank. In July 2006, Erste announced the acquisition of 50.5% of Prestige, a small Ukrainian bank set up in December 2005 by the group of businessmen who sold control of Aval to Raiffeisen; Erste paid €27.7 million for its stake, investing €117 million through to 2010. In 2013, Prestige was sold to Fidobank.

Erste Group Bank now operates 1,871 branches, including 743 branches of Erste and the savings banks in Austria, has 16.6 million customers, and says its ‘home market’ covers a contiguous region of more than 120 million people, with a ‘bankable’ population of 92 million.

3 - Erste Group's Retail Network at end-2024
CountryClients (m)Market shareRetail market shareBranches
by total assetsLoans Deposits
Czech Republic4.619%27%24%337
Austria (Erste, savings banks)4.340%22%24%743
Romania3.014%17%13%317
Slovakia1.922%25%27%160
Croatia1.318%16%15%128
Hungary1.06%12%10%98
Serbia0.56%7%6%88
Total16.6nanana1,871
Source: Erste Bank.

UniCredit Group – At end-2024, UniCredit group had 15 million clients (of which 14 million are retail banking customers) in Europe in its 13 core markets, shown in Table 4. Central Europe includes Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia, while Eastern Europe includes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Russia, and Serbia.

Recent activities – Operations in Ukraine were added with the purchase of Ukrsotsbank, the country’s fourth-biggest bank, in January 2008. At end of April 2013, UniCredit sold ATF Bank, Kazakhstan. Negotiations with a potential buyer of Ukrsotsbank (UA) started in Q4 2013. In Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Azerbaijan, UniCredit limited its activities to a leasing business from mid-2014. The integration of its Czech and Slovak subsidiaries to form UniCredit Czech Republic and Slovakia took place at end-2013.

In November 2015, Unicredit Group (I) moved the responsibility for the CEE/CIS business and all 13 CEE/CIS member banks from Bank Austria to UniCredit Group in Italy. Bank Austria was split into a domestic bank business unit and a separate CEE/CIS banking unit responsible for the 13 CEE/CIS member banks. The latter unit was split from Bank Austria and transferred to UniCredit Group (I).

On October 31, 2016, UniCredit sold its 99.9% stake held in Ukrsotsbank (UA) to Luxembourg-based ABH Holding. In December 2016, UniCredit sold a 32.8% stake in Bank Pekao for PLN 10.6 billion to the Polish insurer PZU Group and the Polish Development Fund, PFR, retaining a 6.26% minority stake in the bank.

In December 2019, UniCredit gave notification on reducing its stake on Bank Pekao below the 5% threshold. In February 2020, Unicredit announced a 12% stake reduction in Turkey’s Yapi Kredi Bank through a share placement, following the November 2019 decision to dissolve its joint venture with Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding. The unwinding of the joint venture gave UniCredit a direct 31.9% stake in Yapi, which would fall to 20% after the share placement.

In April 2022, UniCredit completed the sale of its remaining 18% stake in Turkey’s Yapi Kredi to Koc Holding.

4 - UniCredit’s CEE/CIS Retail Banking Network at end-2024
CountryBankTotal assets
(€bn)		Retail Customers (numbers)Market
Share		Branches
Czech Republic + SlovakiaUniCredit Bank CZ+SK39.0661,5789.3%104
CroatiaZagrebacka Banka21.2995,28225.2%101
HungaryUniCredit Bank13.1279,0086.5%50
BulgariaUniCredit Bulbank17.81,041,91218.2%125
RomaniaUniCredit Bank14.7771,1489.0%166
SloveniaUniCredit Banka3.663,2176.7%16
Serbia and MontenegroUniCredit Bank5.6325,47811.0%72
Bosnia and HerzegovinaUniCredit Bank4.1605,25125.2%69
RussiaUniCredit Bank14.2313,3440.3%56
Total133.35,056,218759
Note: all market shares by total assets in the former Bank Austria home market as at end-2022.
Note: UniCredit sold its stake in Turkey's Yapi Kredi Bank at the end of 2021.
Note: not included here are UniCredit Banks in Italy, Germany and Austria .
Source: UniCredit Group and UniCredit member banks in CEE/CIS region.

Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) has branches in Austria and in 13 CEE/CIS countries, a wider geographical network than any other banking group; it claims to operate the biggest branch network in Russia of any Western bank. As at end-2024, RBI Group reported 17.9 million customers in the region, including Austria.

Through most of the CEE/CIS, the group does business as Raiffeisen Bank. RBI also owns Priorbank in Belarus, eBanka in Czech Republic and Tatra banka in Slovakia. Its total assets in the region amounted to € 199.85 billion at end-2024, up from €76 billion at end-2009.

5 - Raiffeisen Bank International’s Growth
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Customers (m)17.219.017.618.617.9-3.76%11.18%2.14%
Business outlets1,8571,7711,6641,5191,391-8.43%-35.57%-8.42%
Source: Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI).

In October 2005, RBI agreed to buy Bank Aval, the second-largest bank in Ukraine, for $1 billion; in Russia, it bought Impexbank, with 200 branches, in 2006 and now has representation across all time zones in the Russian Federation on top of its core presence in Moscow and St Petersburg.

In June 2011, RBI bought a 70% stake in Polbank EFG from Greece Eurobank EFG for €460 million. The Polbank acquisition merged with Raiffeisen PL made Raiffeisen the sixth biggest lender in Poland.

In September 2015, Raiffeisen Bank International agreed a deal with Alfa Bank (RUS) to sell RBI’s direct banking subsidiary Zuno. Launched in 2010, Zuno had 250,000 clients in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

In June 2016, RBI sold its Slovenian member bank to private equity investor Apollo Global Management (US). Negotiations with Alior Bank S.A. on the sale of the core banking business of Raiffeisen Bank Polska S.A. (Raiffeisen Polbank) were terminated on 7 December 2016.

However, in April 2018, RBI Group (A) agreed to sell the core banking operations of Raiffeisen Bank Polska for €775 million by way of demerger to Bank BGZ BNP Paribas, the subsidiary of BNP Paribas Group (F). RBI transferred the remaining Raiffeisen Bank Polska operations, mainly comprising the foreign currency retail mortgage loan portfolio, to a Polish branch of RBI. The transaction closed in 2018.

In connection with the demerger, RBI and BNP participated in a Bank BGZ BNP Paribas share capital increase, in which RBI received shares in Bank BGZ BNP Paribas representing 9.8% of the latter’s share capital. These shares were subsequently acquired by BNP or a designated third party. The shareholding of BNP in Raiffeisen Bank Polska terminated, and RBI remained the sole shareholder of the remaining operations of Raiffeisen Bank Polska following the demerger.

In July 2021, Raiffeisen announced the acquisition of Equa Bank in the Czech Republic, bringing 488,000 customers to the bank. In October 2021, Raiffeisen acquired Credit Agricole Bank Serbia. The deal was expected to be completed in early 2022.

6 - Raiffeisen Bank International’s CEE/CIS Network at end-2024
Assets (€m)CustomersBusiness outlets
CountryLocal bank name
Czech Rep.Raiffeisenbank31,995 2,249,312 127
HungaryRaiffeisen Bank11,217 528,355 68
PolandRaiffeisen Bank Polska1,291 31,880 1
SlovakiaTatra banka21,001 1,352,897 141
AlbaniaRaiffeisen Bank3,089 487,978 76
Bosnia & HerzegovinaRaiffeisen Bank2,975 454,819 87
CroatiaRaiffeisen Bank Austria7,299 481,096 70
KosovoRaiffeisen Bank Kosovo 1,622 351,087 36
RomaniaRaiffeisen Bank16,656 2,324,425 276
Serbia Raiffeisen banka6,409 1,068,469 105
RussiaAO Raiffeisenbank16,945 3,219,167 89
BelarusPriorbank
UkraineVAT Raiffeisen Bank Aval4,986 2,854,764 298
Group Corporate & Markets62,818 2,503,641 17
Corporate Center33,001-
Reconciliation16,248-
Total of RBI network banks + Group199,85119,000,0001,391
Note: RBI sold Raffeisenbank Bulgaria to KBC Bank during 2022.
Note: countries are shown in order of the RBI segments CE, SEE and CIS.
Source: Raiffeisen Bank International.

Digital Banking

All retail banks in Austria offer online banking services and mobile banking apps to their clients. Services available include balance and transaction reporting and payment initiation. According to Eurostat, 78.24% of all Austrian bank clients were e-banking users at end-2024.

All major banks offer electronic banking services via their proprietary MBS-compatible systems and Germany’s bank-independent MultiCash software system. MBS and MultiCash enable corporate users to manage both bank accounts and transactions.

Mobile banking apps – Mobile banking apps offering immediate mobile money transfer services in Austria include Erste’s George, Raiffeisen’s ELBA Pay, BAWAG’s klar, and PayPal.

Raiffeisen Bank – In August 2019, RBI joined a funding round in a business verification and KYC RegTech, “Kompany”. The company was one of the first participants in RBI’s Elevator Labs FinTech partnership programme. The programme helps scale-ups collaborate with leading bank experts across RBI Group and resulted in a multi-year commercial agreement for Kompany in 2018. Kompany combines artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and blockchain technology to provide business verification and client onboarding for financial institutions, insurance companies, corporations, and FinTechs.

In September 2020, as a result of the Elevator Lab, RBI announced the launch of RaiConnect, a virtual branch service featuring a full suite of collaborative modules and e-Paper workflows in partnership with Moxtra. RaiConnect is a mobile and web app now available for RBI’s premium private individual and corporate clients. Through RaiConnect customers can connect with their relationship managers, exchange documents, have video conversations, receive information via screen sharing and more services protected by the highest encryption security standards. Clients can exchange files and documents within RaiConnect and comment on them and can also share a screen to facilitate better understanding.

Raiffeisen also rolled out many new digital services, including QR code payment, and the payment application service all became available through mobile phones.

In 2020, Raiffeisen Bank participated in the launch of the Immediate Payment System, which was launched at the national level in early 2020.

During 2022, RBI’s digitalisation efforts focused on the growing relevance of mobile banking. While the penetration rate of active mobile banking use was at 53% for RBI in 2020, it reached 60% by year-end 2022. The acceptance of online loans has remained high: In 2021, 49% of loans were granted through initiation in digital channels, and by 2024 this increased to 60%. In 2024, penetration (the rate of active mobile banking use) reached 65% in retail and is above that of local peers. The sale of E2E digital loans at group level reached 52% in 2023.

RBI placed more focus on the full end-to-end digitalisation of core products (accounts, payments/cards, and loans). RBI expected to achieve yearly cost savings and additional income from the full digitalisation of the five most important products (current accounts, credit cards, consumer loans, as well as current accounts and loans for SMEs).

Since the end of 2019, RBI has digitalised a series of products and services on the myRaiffeisen platform. This includes a digital KYC process (eKYC) for companies and institutional customers, digital account opening (eAccount Opening), digital export finance (eSpeedtrack), as well as further services such as eFinance, eGateway, eArchive, and the digital payment questionnaire for correspondent banking clients (ePIC). In 2021, eAccount opening was the first product to go live across RBI. Around 53% of new accounts at RBI in Austria were initiated digitally in 2021 (2020: 39%), and 56% of new customers were verified using the fully digitalised eKYC process (versus 42% in 2020). By 2022, 59% of new accounts at RBI in Austria were initiated digitally and 82% of new customers were verified using the fully digitalised eKYC process. In 2024, 49% of all new RBI PI accounts were initiated through digital channels, a 16 percentage points increase year-over-year.

In 2021, for corporate customers, RBI expanded its services on myRaiffeisen.com to the RBI Group in the CEE region. As a result, accounts can now be opened digitally in one harmonised process at all of RBI’s banks for international companies. The number of registered users for a growing number of features tripled during 2021.

During 2021, RBI continued investments in security, with the bank reporting that losses caused by fraudulent cases were reduced by some 30% through appropriate preventive measures.

In 2022, RBI launched eTradeOn – a new digital trade finance channel – on its myraiffeisen.com platform. By using the trade finance solution eTradeOn, customers can apply for new guarantees and amendments to existing guarantees without the need for paperwork.

Erste Bank – In 2015, Erste Bank launched its new digital banking platform and mobile banking app, George. Once downloaded and activated, the wallet allows online banking, in-app credit transfers, account information, cardholder information, and geo-blocking of cards. As of 2021, Erste Group’s digital strategy was based on its own digital ecosystem, aimed at providing customers access to personalised products from Erste Group and also third-party suppliers through APIs to enable a range of cooperations with FinTechs and other industries. The expansion of the digital platform George was continued in 2022. The number of digital users and digital transactions increased continuously. Across Erste Group, 10.8 million customers were using George at year-end 2024. By 2024, more than half of all retail business products are distributed digitally.

Erste’s digital platform George was implemented in Austria in 2015 and now operates in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, and Hungary with plans to be rolled out in Serbia. Customers can activate applications of Erste Group or third parties via plug-ins and use them to manage their finances. In 2022, George reached another evolutionary level and George Business was implemented for corporate customers in Austria. At year-end 2024, the number of customers using George grew by almost 200,000 to 2.7 million users, and the digital sales ratio stood at 43% (2023: 41%).

Bank Austria – According to Bank Austria, many of its customers also opted more strongly for digital solutions in 2020 than in the past three years. The bank strengthened its multi-channel offering with additional remote advice and service offerings via digital channels.

In 2020, Bank Austria updated its MobileBanking app and equipped it with additional features to establish the mobile channel as an equal channel to 24You. With the automatically integrated personal finance manager, customers have an overview of their income and expenses. Intelligent transfer forms recognise the type of transfer using the account number, automatically fill in known account details and guide the user intuitively through the process. Another new feature is the option to handle foreign or tax office transactions using the new MobileBanking app.

During 2020, Bank Austria’s cooperation with FinTechs gained momentum, including the Bank Austria Keyboard, a smartphone keyboard that connects mobile banking with any written communication via smartphone, whether email, SMS, social media, messaging or messenger services, platforms, or chats.

During 2023, UniCredit Bank Austria will improve the service model for its retail customers, in particular by means of a further optimised mix of online and offline channels: The focus is on direct channels for customer service and transactions, so that sales can devote itself fully to consulting. Moreover, direct channels for the service of the broad business will be made available in order to exploit growth opportunities through a greater coverage and improved investment services in Private Banking and wealth management. UniCredit is also focusing on the further expansion of digital solutions such as video consulting or digital contract signing in the corporate customer sector, particularly in terms of support for small and medium-sized companies.

Another area of focus was the introduction of the new iMobileBanking App, which was initiated in Q2 2020 and completed by the end of January 2021, and includes facial recognition, fingerprint, or self-chosen authorisation code (ATC).

As of 2021, Bank Austria claimed that 55% of its clients were active digital users.

In 2023, the percentage of Bank Austria customers who are “Mobile Active Users” increased to around 50%, while the percentage of “Digital Active Users” rose to around 54%. In Open Banking, Bank Austria claimed to be the first bank in Austria to manage third-party accounts via secure APIs with its free multi-banking feature in 24You Internet Banking, and the second in its mobile banking app. Through these multi-banking services, 800,000 clients access their other bank payment accounts directly from their Bank Austria account and make SEPA transfer payments. In 2024, Bank of Austria reported that an increasing number of customers are taking advantage of the benefits offered by digitalization in banking. 22% of Bank Austria customers are now “digital-only” customers, 63% are “multichannel” customers and only 15% are “branch-only” customers. More than 45% of customer product purchases were made via remote channels. This means that Bank Austria is significantly above the market average of only 17% for digital-only customers and significantly below the market average of 21% for branch-only customers. Bank Austria is also significantly above the market average of 60% for mobile banking app usage, at 66%.

Addiko Bank – During 2020, Addiko’s focus was on growing profitability incrementally with new effective distribution capabilities, with an increase in the contribution of digital sales (20% consumer loans) and digitally enabled multipliers to 40%. 10% of new customer originations were conducted through remote advice channels. As of 2024, Addiko reported 314,000 registered mobile banking users (+8% from 2023), and 323,000 digital banking users (+7% from 2023). 34% of consumer loans and 49% of SME loans originated through digital channels (web) in 2024.

Austrian Anadi Bank – Following its strategic realignment in 2015, with a new digital business strategy developed by Anadi Bank‘s Management Board in H2 2020, a digitalisation initiative resulted in a digital SME loan being launched as part of the expansion into Germany, and a sales cooperation under the MARIE brand, through which banking services are offered via tablet in Austrian tobacconists, was launched. In digital consumer lending, its business strategy 2.0 enabled the bank to more than double the volume of new business compared to 2020. In 2022, Anadi Bank completed the implementation of its Strategy 1.0 and Strategy 2.0 and now looks forward to the next chapter of its strategic development with Strategy 3.0, which will focus on digital growth. As part of the current Strategy 3.0, in 2023, the bank is working flat out on further digital expansion in Austria and Germany. In September 2024, Anadi Bank completed a spin‑off of its branch network and most of its SME (KMU) business in Carinthia. After that spin-off, Anadi Bank stated it will refocus fully on digital banking, corporate banking and public finance.

Video-based bank onboarding – From January 2017, customers of Erste Bank and Sparkassen could open a current account using video-based online identification through either a mobile device or desktop computer. The bank integrated IDnow’s Video-Ident solution across its digital banking platform. A new customer’s identity is verified via a live video connection, taking no more than five minutes. Pictures are taken of the front and back of a government-issued photo ID document, such as a passport or national identity card, and a photo of the customer is taken and compared to that shown on the ID.

The move follows FMA’s approval to enable banks to offer video-based online identification services on 3 January 2017. Prior to the FMA’s approval, banks had not been permitted to provide such a service in Austria.

In 2021, the OeNB launched a financial innovation hub, OeNPAY, which runs a competency network that supports efforts to implement digital payments across Austria and promotes financial innovations in cooperation with all stakeholders in payment services. Being a wholly owned subsidiary of the OeNB, the OeNPAY has taken care to adopt a neutral market position.

About Open API Standards

In June 2017, The Berlin Group, the European payments interoperability coalition of banks and payment processors with membership comprising bank backed ACHs and industry bodies, announced it would push a single standard for API access to bank accounts (XS2A) compliant with the PSD2 regulation.

The Berlin Group says its NextGenPSD2 Initiative provides a harmonised API standard for accessing bank accounts. Built as an ‘Access to Account Framework’, The Berlin Group says the standard offers operational rules and implementation guidelines with detailed data definitions, message modelling and information flows based on RESTful API methodology.

As of the beginning of 2021, the Berlin Group NextGenPSD2 was implemented in all EU countries, in several non-EU countries in Europe, and in countries outside Europe who are focused on maintaining reachability and compatibility with the European market. Around 80% of European banks and hundreds of third-party providers (TPPs) have implemented the Berlin Group NextGenPSD2 Framework. In 2021, the group was migrated to the Open Finance task force to explore use cases of Open Banking schemes and Open Finance schemes.

Among others, European Open API sets include Open Banking UK, Swiss Corporate API, and STET Open API (F, B).

There are several important updates and recent details to add regarding Open API standards and Open Banking in Europe and Belgium. As of 2024, the Berlin Group, along with other standardisation initiatives, has significantly advanced Open API and Open Finance frameworks, resulting in broader industry adoption and interoperability.​

Berlin Group and OpenFinance API Framework

European Open API Sets and Industry Expansion

These developments mark a transition from PSD2-driven access to a much wider Open Finance landscape, with almost universal bank API implementation, extensive support for business and consumer account types, and expanding services enabling secure, data-driven payments and financial innovations across Belgium and greater Europe.

PSD2 and the Open Banking Mandate

The adoption of the revised Payment Services Directive, PSD2, has set the stage for Open Banking in Europe, a European Open Banking Mandate with significant impact on the financial services industry. PSD2 challenges for banks and FinTechs include Open Banking, Open APIs, and the rollout of digital payment services and mobile apps.

PSD2 lowers the barriers for market entry to third-party service providers, FinTechs, and it opens up doors for innovative players to offer services that currently do not exist, e. g. account information services, third-party personal finance management, digital identity and KYC.

PSD2 is going to change the European payment and banking landscape and ultimately the position and role of banks in the ecosystem. FinTechs drive the change with the banking industry seeking the right strategy.

Post-PSD2, the key question for the financial service industry will be how to grant authorised access for their FinTech partners to bank account information, for instance secure access to account balance, payment data, credit risk and others.

For banks, the impact of the PSD2 is that they are no longer the only ones that have access to the bank customer information. Bank customers will now decide who they want to grant access to their payment information. Alongside this initiative, with new services based on access to bank accounts (XS2A), banks may lose the direct connection to their customers. To maintain their position in the new PSD2 reality, banks will need to adapt their business and operational models.

By mid-2025, notable challenges for the Austrian banking industry include:

In September 2020, Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) introduced a regulatory sandbox for innovative FinTech companies to encourage investment and development of new services. The sandbox can be used to test financial innovations of any kind for which a licence or other authorisation from the FMA is required, checking compliance with the regulatory requirements, and putting the concept to the test in a supervisory context.

Nine FinTechs have applied for admission to the regulatory sandbox since its inception. By the end of 2022, 8 of these had been accepted, with one application ultimately having been withdrawn. The very first sandbox participant was awarded the licence it needed to operate as an investment firm in Q1 2022. The other sandbox participants are a provider related to virtual currencies, a company already operating as a crypto exchange, and a provider of a crowdfunding platform model in accordance with the Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers (ECSP) for business. One participant had its activity in the sandbox ended by the FMA by administrative decision following a 2-year period and with effect from 18 January 2023. A further sandbox participant intends to provide services related to virtual currencies, and another plans to provide investment services in an innovative way.

As of 2024, there were 54 Open Banking bank and account providers, four third-party providers, 65 bank APIs, and 21 API aggregators in Austria.

Payment Services

In Austria, the law on payment services adopted the EU payment services directive (PSD) and the EU Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR). Austria has adopted the new PSD2 – effective from January 2018.

In 2025, the more than 300 different payment services offered in Europe can be grouped into:

Card Brands and Card Types

At present, there is no national debit card scheme in Austria, and all retail banks issue debit cards and contactless credit cards with Mastercard or VISA brands.

From 2016, BAWAG P.S.K. issued V PAY with debit cards. Issuance of VISA Electron cards was attempted but failed. In 2020, BAWAG and easybank announced that all new customers would receive Debit Mastercards, with existing cardholders receiving replacement cards. According to the bank, switching to Mastercard would facilitate growth in e-commerce and digital payment transactions.

Bank Austria launched an Electron debit card pilot in November 2001 and 21,000 Electron cards were issued by end-2001, falling to 14,000 at end-2004.

From 2018, the digital challenger bank N26 (D) issues Debit Mastercard cards in Austria. From 2019, Erste Bank and the Austrian savings banks issue Debit Mastercard cards replacing Maestro cards.

From July 2023, banks and other card issuers will no longer issue Maestro cards. Instead, they will need to issue Debit Mastercards. Maestro was launched in 1991, and it was the world’s first debit card that could be used via an online network. About 400 million Maestro cards are in circulation worldwide, mainly across Europe. However, Maestro is not enabled for the demands of e-commerce and cannot be used for online or in-app payments, hence the decision to phase it out in favour of Mastercard Debit products. Visa announced that Electron cards will be phased out globally in 2024. The features of the Visa Debit card have been modified to match the features of the Visa Electron card.

Austrian card products like consumer cards, commercial cards and purchasing cards range from classic cards to gold cards and platinum cards. Additional card features (e.g. picture cards, bonus points, PIN selection at ATMs, cashback, card control by SMS notification and other in-app controls like geo blocking) are used to attract cardholders. Also, individual picture cards and collector cards are issued on demand.

The EMV migration of cards was completed in 2012. All Maestro cards are chip cards, since 2008.

Debit cards issued are VISA Debit and Debit Mastercard cards.

Credit Cards issued are cards branded VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Diners, and JCB.

Prepaid Cards – All Austrian banks issue prepaid cards and virtual cards for internet use. In March 2017, Easybank absorbed the card portfolio of PayLife and became the largest prepaid card issuer in Austria.

Since 2008, RBI offers its VISA prepaid card programmes, RELOAD and PRELOAD. The programmes offer new features for the Austrian market including PIN selection, picture card technology, and SMS notifications as well as the core reload function.

Co-branded cards – In Austria, co-branded card products are in circulation. Co-branded cards are based on the international card brands Mastercard or VISA.

The Austrian issuers of co-branded cards include Card Complete Service Bank, Easybank (BAWAG P.S.K.), Raiffeisenbank RBI, American Express and savings banks.

Card Complete Service Bank issues a co-branded Miles&More Mastercard card together with airline Austrian Airlines, along with the OAMTC Club card and the Jaguar card.

In March 2016, Wirecard (D) launched the co-branded Airberlin & NIKI Mastercard prepaid card together with topbonus, the frequent flyer program of airlines Airberlin and NIKI. However, Wirecard went into insolvency in June 2020, and the cards are no longer issued.

Contactless Cards and form-factors

Contactless cards were successfully tested in 2007, but no cards were issued until 2010. Since 2011, RBI has issued a Mastercard PayPass credit card. In November 2011, ‘Card Complete’ launched the first ever Austrian contactless card, a VISA credit card with payWave contactless function.

In April 2012, PayLife issued the PayLife Black VISA credit card with payWave contactless function. In March 2016, Payment Service Austria (PSA) launched the contactless SIM SE NFC-based Mobile Maestro card (Bankomatkarte Mobil).

Contactless card form-factors include micro cards, NFC wristbands, NFC stickers and mobile HCE NFC payment apps.

By end-2018, de-facto all Austrian payment cards in circulation were contactless cards.

PSA reported at the end of 2020 that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of contactless surged again in 2020, with nearly 83% of debit card payments being contactless, up from 73% in 2019. There was also a jump in contactless mobile payments in 2020, with more than 1 million virtual cards activated on Android and Apple smartphones and other contactless devices in 2020. About 690 million payment transactions worth almost €22 billion were made in 2020 via contactless. Compared to 2019, there was an increase of 34% in contactless transactions and 45% in value.

As of 2024, PSA reported that of the 3.18 billion transactions reported, 95.2% were contactless, up from 93.5% in 2023.

In August 2022, JCB International expanded its existing partnership with Concardis, as part of the NETS/Nexi Group, to enable JCB contactless acceptance at thousands of merchants in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. After the 2022 expansion, the underlying acquirer/payment-service infrastructure in Germany, Austria and Switzerland was rebranded under Nexi (post-merger) in 2023. In September 2023, JCB announced a new collaboration with PAYONE (a joint venture of Worldline and the DSV-group), enabling JCB Contactless and J/Secure for PAYONE’s nearly 277,000 merchants in Germany and Austria.

Predefined contactless limits – Contactless payments of purchase amounts below a predefined contactless limit are without PIN or signature and without transaction receipt. In Austria, the contactless limit for payments without PIN/signature is set at €25 for cards branded PayPass or payWave. In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the contactless limit was raised to €50 to encourage more non-cash transactions.

Interchange Fee Arrangements

International and Intra European Non-EEA Interchange Fees are set by the members of the international card schemes to be applied in case of cross-border transactions or foreign cards used in Austria, respectively.

Austria’s Interchange Fee Implementation Act (IEVG) gives the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (AFCA) powers to monitor and enforce compliance with Regulation (EU) 2015/751, including information requests, on-site inspections, and fines where interchange exceeds the allowed levels.​

Core consumer card caps (EU-regulated)

For Austrian-issued consumer cards, both domestically and intra-EEA:

Consumer debit & prepaid cards:

Consumer credit cards:

These caps apply to most everyday POS and e-commerce transactions with standard consumer Visa and Mastercard products.

Visa domestic interchange – Austria (April 2025)

Visa publishes an Austria-specific interchange table mainly for business/commercial and special categories, while consumer cards remain at the EU caps.​

Examples (non-consumer, Austria 2025):

Mastercard domestic interchange – Austria (POS)

Mastercard’s “Austria – Domestic Interchange Fees” schedule shows:

Commercial products have higher rates:

American Express – As a result of the EU regulation of interchange fees (IFR), American Express elected to exit all of its bank licensing arrangements in the European Union. This means that they have terminated all licenses with its existing EU partners, stopped issuing new cards and are in the final stages of the process of closing down all operations directly related to bank licensing. Over the course of 2019, American Express credit cards issued under independent operator agreements were rendered invalid in all countries of the European Union. Various banks that have up to now had exclusive licensing contracts with American Express have already responded accordingly and provided their clients with the opportunity to switch to other card brands.

From 2020, American Express Payments Europe is now the sole issuer and acquirer of American Express cards in Europe, including Austria. However, American Express Payments Europe continues its local sales partner arrangements with local acquirers enabling the use of American Express cards at ATMs and POS terminals.

JCB International – For the same reason, JCB credit cards issued under independent operator agreements will be rendered invalid in all countries of the European Union. From 2020, JCB International is now the sole issuer and acquirer of JCB cards in Europe, including Germany. However, JCB continues its local sales partner arrangements with local acquirers enabling the use of JCB cards at ATMs and POS terminals.

E-Money 

In Austria, the law on e-money services adopted the e-money directive of the EU (EMD).

Electronic money schemes are available in Austria. E-money in Austria are issued in the form of reloadable prepaid cards. They include VISA Electron cards, Maestro Traveller cards and prepaid products issued by e-money institutions such as paysafecard.

In 2024, there were three e-money institutions (EMI) licensed in Austria, including Austria-based paysafecard which has been licensed as an e-money institution since 2015.

Additionally, software-based e-money e-/m-wallet services are also offered by 206 international payment service providers and e-wallet issuers from the EEA region. They provided notification of operating in Austria under the EU passport system.

Prepaid Luncheon Cards – Multi-application prepaid luncheon cards are issued in the country e.g. by Sodexo, Edenred. In addition to the payment functions, they are used as a luncheon e-voucher.

Prepaid Products – paysafecard, the Austrian prepaid product service provider, issues its prepaid products branded paysafecard in Austria and worldwide.

Digital Account-to-Account Payment Services 

In the Yearbooks, account-based payment services are classified as IBAN-based payment services in SCT/SDD format offered by banks or by independent payment initiation service providers (PISP).

Credit Transfers are used for both high-value corporate and low-value retail payment transactions. Electronic credit transfers are used by the government and companies for salary, supplier and benefit payments. Austria is part of the SEPA initiative for EUR-denominated retail payments. On 1 February 2014, SEPA credit transfers (SCT) replaced all previous credit transfer schemes in Austria. All banks in Austria participate in the SCT scheme.

Direct Debits are used for low-value recurring payments such as utility bills. Also, direct debits are used to pay for online purchases on the internet. On 1 February 2014, SEPA direct debits (SDD) replaced all previous direct debit schemes in Austria: the non-preauthorised debit transfer, Einziehungs-Ermächtigungs-Verfahren, and the preauthorised payment service, Abbuchungsauftragsverfahren.

Instant payments (SCTINST) is the IBAN-based immediate payment scheme in Europe, officially launched in November 2017. It makes funds immediately available to the beneficiary – compliant with existing SCT infrastructure. The regulators will require all banks to offer Instant Payments from 2018.

Among others, the characteristics of SCTINST include an initial maximum of €15,000 with the funds made available on the beneficiary’s account in less than ten seconds, 24/7/365 real-time processing, and immediate refunds in the case that the SCTINST payment was not successful. From July 2020, the maximum amount for instant payments will be €100,000.

Chaired by the ECB, in 2014 the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) identified the need for a pan-European instant euro payment solution. In April 2016, EBA Clearing started the SCTINST project with more than 40 large European banks involved. In November 2016, the European Payments Council (EPC) published the SCTINST scheme and SCTINST rule books version 1.0 while the ERPB provided the governance model. In November 2017, EBA Clearing completed the pan-European instant payments infrastructure, RT1.

SEPA credit transfers and direct debits can be settled on a same-day or next-day basis via the CSA system of the OeNB. In 2024, more than 50% of all IBAN-based payments in Austria were processed intra-day, or even immediately, inside of the same bank group. Potential first use cases for SCTINST in Austria may include P2P, mobile banking apps, online payments, and B2B.

As of June 2025, 2,765 banks from 36 European countries had registered for the SCTINST scheme. This represents 78% of all SCT scheme participants.

As in many European countries, bank transfers have been adopted for online payments, enabling consumers to pay direct from their bank account as an alternative service to payment cards.

Account-based payment service brands offered in Austria include eps, iDEAL, giropay, SOFORT, ELV and BlueCode. In September 2017, PSA launched a new mobile app-based P2P credit transfer service, ZOIN.

In 2024, FMA reported six AISPs and five PISPs licensed in Austria. Authorised in another EEA member state, 384 cross-border PISPs have provided notification of operating in Austria under the EU passport system.

Online Bank Transfer Service eps – eps is described as Austria’s main local payment method for secure online bank transfers and is supported by all major Austrian banks.​

PSPs and gateways such as Adyen, Checkout.com, Stripe and Payrexx all offer eps, giving merchants instant bank-transfer payments.

In 2001, the Austrian banks launched an online credit transfer service, eps, which allows consumers to pay for online purchases from their current accounts. The IBAN-based eps scheme is managed by STUZZA.

In 2011, eps, giropay (D) and iDeal (NL) tried to come up with a cooperative solution based on the SEPA payment instrument SCT. However, this cooperation has come to a standstill. In October 2012, eps and giropay started to develop an integrated payment solution for German and Austrian online shops. In September 2013, eps and giropay said that they had implemented the interface for their cross-border operations from 2014.

Since 2014, eps has been technically linked with Germany’s giropay, enabling Austrian and German online banking customers to pay in each other’s web shops via their familiar domestic online banking interfaces.​

Despite early plans for a broader SEPA-wide solution with iDEAL (NL), the three-way cooperation did not mature into a full joint scheme. Instead, giropay later merged with paydirekt and Kwitt under the “giropay” brand, while maintaining the technical link to eps for Austrian-German cross-border payments.​

Merchants using eps today can therefore accept payments from online banking customers in both Austria and Germany, with immediate payment confirmation and irrevocable execution once authorised.​

eps is used not only for retail e-commerce but also for paying fees to authorities, universities, and public bodies in Austria, reflecting its government-backed origin.

Advanced Payment Services

In the Yearbooks, advanced payment services are classified as online wallets, e-wallets, and/or mobile wallets with any type of payment service chosen by the wallet user to complete the payment.

In selected Austrian online shops, the wallets PayPal, Skrill and Amazon Pay are offered as payment means.

PayPal – PayPal is present in Austria. As of end-2024, PayPal reported 434 million active customer accounts globally, up 2.1% from 426 million in 2023. This consisted of 398 million customer active accounts and 36 million merchant active accounts across approximately 200 markets. PayPal’s total payment volume increased to $1.68 trillion (up from $1.53 in 2023) and customer engagement grew to an average of 60.6 transactions per active account, driving 3% growth in transactions per active account at the end of 2024.

During 2020, with consumers worldwide embracing digital wallet capabilities, the company launched several related services including QR Code Checkout, Buy Now Pay Later, Crypto purchasing and Xoom direct transfers to bank accounts and debit cards.

In June 2018, PayPal continued its shopping spree with a $400 million cash deal to acquire e-commerce platform Hyperwallet. The acquisition followed deals to buy Venmo, Xoom, Sweden’s iZettle (renamed Zettle) for $2.2 billion and AI-based merchant marketing outfit Jetlore, as PayPal bids to extend its reach to all corners of the payments market.

In May 2022, PayPal Ventures invested in Modulr, an embedded payments platform for digital businesses, as part of a $108 million Series C funding round led by General Atlantic, Blenheim Chalcot, Frog Capital, and Highland Europe. Modulr delivers payments infrastructure for over 200 top-tier customers, including Revolut, Wagestream, Sage and BrightPay, and processes an annualised transaction value of more than £100 billion.

In 2023, PayPal was exploring the sale of Xoom, its international money transfer subsidiary, in a bid to cut costs and focus on high-growth business areas – as of November 2025, PayPal had not completed the sale. Also, Stax Payments – an all-in-one payment provider for businesses – announced its partnership with PayPal in July 2023. This partnership will allow PayPal’s users to easily make payments with more than 20,000 merchants of Stax through a fast checkout process as well as new payment options such as Buy-now-pay-later solutions.

In 2023, PayPal launched its own US dollar-denominated stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), which is fully backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US treasuries, and similar cash equivalents and designed for digital payments and Web3. Eligible US PayPal customers who purchase PayPal USD will be able to transfer the token to external wallets, send person-to-person payments, fund purchases at checkouts supported by PayPal, and convert cryptocurrency holdings to and from PayPal USD.

In January 2024, PayPal launched AI-powered features to drive personalized offerings for both merchants and customers based on the data it possesses. These features include Smart Receipts (for merchants) which predicts what shoppers may want to buy next from the merchant. The merchant can then offer personalised recommendations, and cashback offers on this receipt. A major feature for users is CashPass which will use give users personalised cashback offers based on an AI analysis of their spending activity.

In March 2024, PayPal launched a complete suite of payment processing tools for online small businesses in the UK, Canada, and across more than 20 European markets. The PayPal Complete Payments package enables small businesses to accept an expanded range of payment instruments including PayPal, buy now pay later, Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit and debit cards, and alternative payment methods from around the world. By April 2024, PayPal added new features to its complete payments solution for small businesses to enable small businesses to accept a range of payments including PayPal, Venmo and PayPal Pay Later products. PayPal also gave small businesses access to four new features to help them drive payment acceptance and enhance how they run their business, and this will include Apple Pay as a checkout option.

In 2025, PayPal significantly enhanced its offerings for small businesses by introducing PayPal Open, a unified commerce platform that consolidates all of PayPal’s merchant solutions into a single interface. This platform provides small businesses with access to a comprehensive suite of tools, including payment processing, financial services, and AI-driven insights, all designed to streamline operations and foster growth.

Amazon Pay – was introduced in 2007. The payment service enables Amazon customers to checkout at participating third-party merchant sites using their Amazon credentials.​

Launch Date: Amazon Pay first launched in August 2007 as “Pay with Amazon,” later expanding globally and adding features for third-party merchant acceptance.​

Functionality: All active Amazon customers can use their Amazon credentials for checkout at partnered merchants—Amazon Pay is available in 18 countries as of October 2024.​

Global Usage: Over 50 million customers have used Amazon Pay for purchases worldwide, with a large share coming from Amazon Prime members, but recent statistics indicate over 3.2 billion transactions processed in 2025 and 600,000+ merchants accepting Amazon Pay as of June 2025.​

Prime Share: More than half of Amazon Pay users are Amazon Prime Members, matching your note on demographics.​

Market Impact: By the end of 2025, Amazon Pay accounts for approximately 6% of the global online payment market, processing an estimated $85 billion in payments.​

Expansion: Amazon Pay experienced 20% growth in mobile usage and 13% total transaction growth from 2024 to 2025.​

Merchant Share: SMEs comprise around 70% of all merchants using Amazon Pay.

Digital Payment Services

In the Yearbooks, digital payment services are classified as card-based payment services using EMV tokenisation security on the internet combined with HCE NFC technology in the case of contactless payments at POS terminals.

As of mid-2025, the Click to Pay online payment checkout service was available, replacing the previous MasterPass and VISA Checkout services respectively. Click to Pay is a joint service between Mastercard, Visa, Discover and American Express, enabling consumers to make secure one-click payments without having to enter card details or passwords online.

Contactless payments on cards using Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, or Google Pay (previously Android Pay) made by foreign users at contactless POS terminals in Austria are processed as payments on contactless cards.

Global contactless transaction values are projected to reach approximately $15.7 trillion by 2027, up significantly from around $4.6 trillion in 2022, driven by widespread adoption of contactless mobile and card payments. Contactless mobile and wearable payments are expected to grow by over 220%, while contactless card payments will increase by approximately 119% in the same period.

Contactless ticketing spend is forecasted to surge by more than 400% globally between 2022 and 2027, with mobile NFC ticketing powered by OEM wallet solutions such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay playing a critical role in enabling seamless transit and event ticketing across multiple markets.

By 2027, 99% of all smartphones are estimated to support contactless payments, up from 94% in 2022, with average contactless transaction values roughly $28.20 for Apple Pay and $33.40 for Google Pay. Digital wallets—including PayPal, Apple Pay, and Alipay—represent the majority of global mobile payments. Mobile wallets accounted for around half of global e-commerce payment transactions as of 2022 with approximately 2.8 billion users worldwide, nearly half concentrated in Asia-Pacific, led by large markets such as China, India, and Southeast Asia.

In North America and Europe, mobile payments increasingly overlap with broader “alternative payments” encompassing all non-cash, non-card payment methods, reflecting shifting consumer preferences towards convenience and digital-first financial experiences.

Overall, the global contactless payment market is witnessing rapid growth driven by technology advances, expanding wallet usage, and evolving consumer behaviours, signalling a transformative shift towards universal cashless and contactless commerce by the end of the decade.

Apple Pay has become one of the world’s most used digital payment methods. Its user base increased from 521.4 million to 535.8 million in 2022 and now sits at 785 million users worldwide at end 2024.

This payment method is also available in over 85% of US merchants and 60% of stores globally.

As of August 2024, the estimated total Apple Pay in-store sales now sit at $268 billion, up from $213 billion last year.

As of 2023, Apple Pay processed 14.2% of all online consumer payments and 5.6% of all in-store purchases globally, global transaction volume (2025 estimate) is $7.6 trillion.

In the US its Apple Pay users are measured as ~63.9 million (2025 forecast), with in-store U.S. retail sales via Apple Pay sitting at ~$268 billion (as of August 2024).

Putting it all together, Apple Pay is increasingly becoming an effective customer acquisition and retention feature for Apple. In June 2022, Apple Pay added Apple Pay Later, its buy-now-pay-later service, allowing users to split purchases into four equal instalments with no interest or fees. Initially launched in the US, the service is expected to roll out to other countries during 2023. In 2023, Apple launched its Card savings account from Goldman Sachs with a 4.15% annual percentage yield. Apple Wallet users can set up and manage a savings account directly from Apple Card in Wallet, with no fees, no minimum deposits, and no minimum balance requirements.

As of October-2025, Apple Pay was supported by 81 banks and payment providers in Austria.

Google Pay current data shows around 820 million active users across 45 global markets.

In January 2022, it was reported that the company was planning to transform Google Pay into a “comprehensive digital wallet”, following the app’s reported slow growth and the shutdown of Plex. In April, it was reported that Google was planning to revive the “Google Wallet” branding in a new app or interface and integrated with Google Pay. Google officially announced Google Wallet on May 11, 2022, at the 2022 Google I/O keynote. The app began rolling out on Android smartphones on July 18, replacing the 2018 app and co-existing with the 2020 Google Pay app in the US. While the app name itself was changed from Google Pay to Google Wallet, the service name of actually paying for things online or in-store remains “Google Pay.”.

In the US, Google Pay has over 165 million users.  Also, Google Pay is used on nearly 800,000 websites as a secure payment gateway. Roughly 20% of all mobile purchases are made using this digital payment processor. Google Pay ranks 3rd among mobile payment methods globally. In Russia, it has an online usage distribution of 35.18% and has recorded approximately 1,281,838 transactions online. Available in 19 countries, 30% of Google Pay’s active users are millennials. It is one of Canada’s top 5 online payment apps and is the primary mobile payment method for 2,193 businesses worldwide. In India, Google Pay boasts 67 million active users and holds 36.10% of the mobile application market. Its widespread adoption and significant market share highlight its growing importance in the global digital payment landscape.

In September 2021, Google Pay went live in Austria, and as of October-2025 was supported by 47 banks and payment providers.

Samsung Pay is available in 29 countries worldwide and has an estimated 150 million users. Samsung Pay works with a broad range of Samsung Galaxy phones, including the latest Galaxy S22 and newer models, as well as many previous models like the Galaxy S8.

Samsung claims that its system will work with almost all point-of-sale systems: NFC, magnetic stripe and EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) terminals for chip-based cards. In June 2022, Samsung Pay was renamed to Samsung Wallet in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Along with the renaming came new features such as the ability to store digital assets and digital keys within the Wallet app.

Samsung Pay is not yet available in Austria.

Overview of Cashless Payments

According to an OeNB study from 2016, the Austrians continued to be heavy users of cash: 81.8% of all payments and 64.9% of the total payments value. In its 2021 annual report, the OeNB stated that cash continues to be the preferred means of payment for a considerable share of Austrians. At the beginning of the first pandemic lockdown in Austria in March 2020, cash demand went up significantly, due to heightened uncertainty among the population, who wanted to make sure they had enough cash at hand.

From mid-April 2020, cash demand in Austria subsided again. This was attributable to a decline in cash payments as private consumption slumped because retail shops remained closed during the lockdown. The gradual easing of containment measures resulted in another rise in cash demand, starting in July 2020 and continuing until Austria’s second lockdown in November 2020. Unlike the first lockdown, the November lockdown did not see a rise in cash demand.

In 2022, OeNB stated that cash remains highly popular in Austria, with people appreciating above all the anonymity of cash payments. Following a pandemic-related decline in 2021, the share of cash transactions at POS terminals in Austria rose from 66% to 70% in 2022 In line with its commitment to safeguarding the supply of physical cash alongside further digital payment innovations, the OeNB launched a “euro cash platform” in September 2022, which it uses to reach out to stakeholders and money users. According to OeNB, citing a new ECB study, in 2024, cash payments remain of crucial importance in Austria, accounting for 62% of all POS payments (by number of transactions). This value stood at 60% in 2022 and at 55% in 2019. Almost three-quarters of Austrian respondents (73%) stated that it is important for them to be able to pay in cash. This is the highest value in the euro area, followed by Germany (69%) and Greece (68%). Compared to the euro area average (22%), cash was almost twice as popular in Austria in 2024 (38%).

In 2024, card payments by number accounted for 54.83% of all cashless payments compared to 62.34% in the EU.

Credit Transfers (22.89%) are the dominant payment instrument in the country, particularly in terms of value. Direct debits (15.49%) are also a popular method in Austria.

Cheque use in Austria is in decline due to the cost of cheque collection and the decline in the use of cheques for B2B transactions. In 2024, cheques were insignificant, representing only 0.000% of the total volume of cashless payments. By the year 2024, cheques payment has been totally eradicated.

In 2024, there were 353.9 cash-less payments per capita composed of 207.8 card payments, 0.0 cheque payments, 87.1 credit transfers, and 58.9 direct debits.

7 - Cashless Payment Transactions in Austria
(millions)202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Card payments 1,109.0 1,266.2 1,467.8 1,679.6 1,907.5 2,166.4 13.57%91.90%13.92%
Cheques issued 0.3 0.2 0.1 - - 0.0 -33.33%-97.23%-51.20%
Credit transfers 616.8 662.7 744.7 770.3 799.4 829.5 3.77%31.41%5.62%
Direct debits 462.6 474.9 509.9 527.8 541.0 554.5 2.49%16.26%3.06%
Total 2,241.1 2,452.6 2,970.0 3,230.5 3,491.9 3,774.5 8.09%64.66%10.49%
Total card payments per capita124.4141.4162.1183.9207.8236.012.99%85.62%13.17%
Total cheques issued per capita0.00.00.00.00.00.0-33.68%-97.32%-51.53%
Total credit transfers per capita69.274.082.384.487.190.43.24%27.12%4.92%
Total direct debits per capita51.953.056.357.858.960.41.97%12.45%2.38%
Total cashless payments per capita245.5268.4300.7326.1353.9386.88.51%51.90%8.72%
Note: card payments include e-money purchases; totals include “other payment services”.
Note: from 2014, credit transfers and direct debits exclude transactions from foreign banks.
Source: ECB, OeNB.

Exchange Rates

Austria joined the euro system and adopted the euro as its currency on 1 January 2002. The exchange rate of the Austrian shilling (ATS) against the euro was irrevocably fixed at 13,7603 ATS per €1.00.

Market Infrastructure

Payment Service Austria (PSA)

Austrian banks have been multiple shareholders in interbank card organisations according to the proven Austrian cooperation model in card business. Demanded by the European Commission and the FMA since 2007, several attempts to transform Austrian interbank organisations in order to comply with FMA and OeNB requests have failed (e. g. 2009/2014/2018: Card Complete, 2010: PayLife).

In 2012, the deregulation of the Austrian interbank organisations gained momentum. The new entity Payment Service Austria (PSA) was created and carved out from PayLife Bank. From July 2012, PSA services Bankomat ATMs, the ATM withdrawals and the issuer services for all Austrian debit cards, including all Maestro cards.

PSA is expanding its payment transaction services to include account-to-account transfers. In September 2020, PSA and OeNB teamed up to develop the new structure for processing bulk payment transactions in Austria. In March 2021, PSA joined forces with Worldline to handle the processing of interbank mass payments from 2022 onwards. Worldline will act as the technical clearing and settlement partner for domestic and international interbank payments.

As of 2021, PSA has taken over the operational clearing business for payment transactions from the OeNB and from its holding company Geldservice Austria (GSA). The OeNB will continue to act as a settlement agent to ensure the secure settlement of all transactions. The new infrastructure will support both real-time payment systems and other similar projects and initiatives in the fields of PayTech and FinTech.

Through this cooperation, PSA and Worldline are laying the groundwork for a new real-time payment platform for instant, secure and device-independent payments across Austria. It is expected that from 2023 the services will be delivered via Worldline’s central technical interface.

During 2021, PSA reported it had processed 2 billion transactions annually for the first time and this increased to 3.18 billion transactions in 2024. In addition, PSA launched account-to-account (A2A) transfers, instant payments through TIPS and digital identity services in addition to its card business and support of the ATM system.

As of 2021, transactions with ATM cards (debit cards) increased to over 1.1 billion in 2021, for value of €51 billion. According to PSA, contactless payments with Bankomat cards are being used for more everyday purchases, and steady growth was also observed in the area of ​​mobile payments. In total, over 1.5 million mobile ATM cards were used on smartphones and other form factors in 2021.

The 2 billion transactions were comprised of 1.1 billion transactions with a total volume of over €51 billion made with Austrian ATM cards at home and abroad, a rise of 14% from 2020. Of these, more than 1 billion payment transactions were made for purchases (payments with ATM cards at retailers) with a volume of over €37 billion, a rise of 16% compared to 2020. 86% of POS payments were contactless. The gradual conversion to e-commerce-ready debit cards like VISA Debit and Debit Mastercard increased the share of e-commerce transactions in 2021 to over 44 million, with transaction value rising to almost €1.8 billion.

In addition to the payment transactions, in 2021 almost 97 million cash withdrawals were made with Austrian ATM cards at ATMs in Austria and abroad. Almost 9 million of these were withdrawn using contactless technology. 75.5 million cash withdrawals from domestic and foreign debit and credit cards with a transaction value of almost €11.5 billion were processed at ATMs serviced by PSA.

In 2024, 10.2 million debit cards and credit cards were serviced by PSA.

Furthermore, PSA processed 1.3 billion A2A transactions, comprised of 1.2 billion clearing service transactions (remittances and direct debits), 36.3 million eps online payments and 3.3 million TIPS transactions (real-time transfers). In identity services, PSA processed more than 95 million transactions (age verification checks) in 2024.

In total, PSA processed a record 3.18 billion transactions for Austrian banks in 2024. A total of 1.8 billion debit card transactions were successfully processed in 2024.

Worldline SIX Payment Services (Austria) rebranded as Worldline 

Effective from January 2013, Swiss SIX Group acquired PayLife Bank, the former interbank organisation Europay Austria, for under €100 million. In September 2015, SIX Group rebranded PayLife Bank as SIX Payment Services (Austria) GmbH. From 2019, the company was rebranded Worldline SIX Payment Services.

In March 2017, SIX Group sold its Austrian card issuing business, branded PayLife, together with the full issuer support for Austrian banks to Easybank (BAWAG P.S.K. Group). The transaction was closed in October 2017. SIX Payment Services focused on its B2B business in Austria and planned to further strengthen its merchant acquiring business and its card processing for issuers and acquirers.

In May 2018, Wordline (F) acquired the payments service business of Swiss SIX Group in a deal which valued the cards unit at $2.75 billion. Under the terms of the transaction, SIX Group received a 26.9% stake in Worldline, while Atos SE retained its majority 51.1% share in the Worldline business.

The current management and over 1,300 employees of SIX Payment Services in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Poland, as well as other locations in Europe, became part of Worldline’s organisation after deal closure in Q4 2018.

In March 2021, Worldline and PSA joined forces to handle the processing of interbank mass payments from 2022 onwards. Worldline will act as the technical clearing and settlement partner for domestic and international interbank payments. Austria will then become the next country besides the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary and the islands Aruba and Curacao, to rely in whole or in part on Worldline’s clearing and settlement platform, which previously was operated by equensWorldline.

In September 2021, Worldline unveiled its new brand identity. The Group’s brands will be operating under one clear banner – Worldline – and previous brands will now be known as Worldline. Several brands, including equensWorldline, SIX Payment Services, Bambora and Paymark, will be retired. Worldline’s joint ventures brands such as PAYONE and Ingenico for the POS terminal device business will remain.

Card Complete Service Bank 

VISA Austria Service Kreditkarten AG was rebranded as Card Complete Service Bank AG, and it launched multiple brand acquiring operations in September 2007. By mid-2008, it had begun to issue and acquire Mastercard. All the major Austrian banks are Card Complete partner banks, with Austrian Airlines, Mercedes-Benz, and football club SK Rapid among non-bank partners.

VISA Kreditkarten Service was originally founded in January 1996, with its associate, VISA Austria, holding the VISA acquiring and issuing licence for Austria. Historically, Bank Austria Creditanstalt owned 75% of VISA Service Kreditkarten AG, with Raiffeisen owning the balance. However, in December 2002, Bank Austria Creditanstalt announced the sale of 24.9% of VISA Service Kreditkarten to the private foundation AVZ-Stiftung. Bank Austria (UniCredit Group) has remained the majority shareholder with 50.1%. Raiffeisenbank Bank International Group holds 25%.

In September 2015, Bank Austria sold its DC Bank to its majority subsidiary Card Complete Service Bank.

Including the cards of subsidiary DC Bank, Card Complete Service Bank reported 1.2 million cardholders serviced in 2023.  In 2024, Card Complete claims it’s the number one on the Austrian credit card market with around 1 million cardholders and a nationwide network of acceptance points.

Card Issuers – Overview 

The Austrian banks issue contactless credit cards, charge cards, debit cards and prepaid cards in combination with bank accounts. Addressing the specific needs of personal banking and business banking, the card portfolio is composed of consumer cards, business cards and corporate cards.

Dedicated card products are offered for the individual client segments: families, millennials, students, affluent clients, small business clients, corporate clients and even basic account clients. The credit cards offered range from classic cards to gold cards and platinum cards.

Mostly, Austrian banks use the credit cards issuer service either of Easybank, of Card Complete, or of own credit card service centres in the CEE region. From mid-2012, the Austrian retail banks use the debit card issuer services of interbank organisation Payment Service Austria (PSA). From March 2013, all renewed V PAY cards, and new Debit Mastercard cards are issued with added contactless function.

RBI issued few V PAY cards. From 2016, BAWAG/P.S.K. issued contactless V PAY cards but migrated to Debit Mastercard. Easybank and Card Complete issue own credit cards and prepaid cards. American Express Austria issues its own cards and Card Complete Service Bank was the Diners cards issuer until Diners Club resumed issuing its own cards in Austria. In 2015, Card Complete was first to issue JCB cards in Austria.

Table 8 highlights the aligned card issuer environment following the re-launch of Europay Austria and VISA-Austria as PayLife and Card Complete, respectively, as at mid-2025.

8 - Leading Card Issuers in Austria
Domestic IssuersIssued Card Brands Owned by
AirPlus Austria AirPlus, UTAPLufthansa AirPlus (50%), AUA (50%)
Bank Austria Mastercard, VISA; Debit MastercardUniCredit Group (I): 99.96%
Erste Bank, Erste Group BankMastercard, VISA; Debit MastercardAustrian savings banks
Raiffeisen Banks Mastercard, VISA; Debit MastercardAustrian Raiffeisen banks
BAWAG P.S.K. Mastercard, VISA; Debit MastercardBAWAG free float:100%
Easybank Mastercard, VISA; Debit MastercardBAWAG P.S.K. (A)
Savings BanksMastercard, VISA; Debit MastercardAustrian savings banks
BKS Bank Mastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard3 Banken Gruppe
BTV Bank f. Tirol u. Vorarlberg Mastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard3 Banken Gruppe
OberbankMastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard3 Banken Gruppe
Volksbank Banks Mastercard, VISA; Debit MastercardVolksbanken Group
Austrian Anadi BankMastercard, VISA, Diners; Debit MastercardAnadi Financial Holdings Pte. Ltd.
other issuer banksMastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard---
card complete Service Bank Mastercard, VISA, JCBBank Austria, Raiffeisen Group
PAYBOX Bank VISAA1 Telekom Austria (A)
Santander Consumer Bank Banco Santander Group (E)
DC Bank AGMastercard, Diners, Discover 2015: card complete (A)
American Express Austria AmExp American Express (US)
Source: PCM research

Outlook – By mid-2025, Austrian card issuers face the following notable challenges:

Card Processors and PSPs

In Europe, the payment processing industry is composed of card processors, ATM/POS network hub processors, e-/m-payment service processors (PSPs), and specialised processors (e.g. CSM processors, TSM services).

In Austria, card issuer processing services range from technical issuer processing, including card printing, to full cardholder processing services. They include all types of cards and card technologies allowing for card use in multiple channels (i.e. at ATMs, POS terminals, on the internet and in-store mobile payments in the future).

Acquirer processing services in the country range from technical acquirer processing, including POS terminal services, to full merchant processing services. Usually, ATM/POS network processing is part of acquirer processing while payments on the internet are routed by online payment service processors (PSPs) to the card acquirers and independent payment service providers (e.g. PayPal), respectively.

The leading Austrian bank groups operate their own card processing units on a bank group level while interbank organisations Europay Austria and VISA Austria had run their own IT processing systems.

Debit card payments and e-money purchases on bank-issued prepaid cards in Austria are cleared by Payment Services Austria. Credit card payments are cleared by the card-issuing banks.

By mid-2025, the card processors active in Austria include Worldline, EGCP, Raiffeisen RPC (SK), and Fiserv (formerly First Data). From 2017, Italian processor SIA is the card processor of Bank Austria. SIA was acquired by Italian payment processor Nexi in October 2020.

EGCP – In February 2014, Erste Group Card Processor (EGCP), the former Croatian processor MBU, became the shared group card processor of Erste Group. EGCP has started services for Erste Bank (A).

Prior to that decision, Erste Group chose the SmartVista platform from BPC to upgrade and enhance the issuing and acquiring services offered by its processing centre EGCP to the Erste Group member banks. The challenge is to consolidate all of Erste’s card business onto a single location.

Fiserv (formerly First Data) – In August 2005, First Data International purchased APSS for a sum reported to be €120 million (see Appendix). After the acquisition, card processing contracts between PayLife Bank and First Data ran for five years until mid-2010. First Data (SK) was the processor of acquirer Hobex. In July 2019, Fiserv acquired First Data in a deal worth around $22 billion in an all-stock transaction. With the transaction now complete, Fiserv is one of the world’s largest payments and financial technology providers.

KSG – Austrian issuer and acquirer “Card Complete” continued to run its own card processing unit, KSG.

SIX Payment Services Austria rebranded as Worldline – In mid-2007, PayLife launched an international tender for the processing contracts and in September 2008 it announced that its processing contracts for the 2010-2015 periods would be awarded to SIX Card Solutions, the Swiss interbank-owned company, and SiNSYS. First Data was among those competing for the business. In May 2009, First Data agreed to transfer most of the former APSS business to SIX Card Solutions, rebranded as SIX Payment Services in 2012. In May 2018, Worldline (F) acquired SIX Payment Services S.A, including Austria effective from 2019.

Since 2010, SIX has been responsible for the acquirer processing and the clearing transactions from, in 2015, the 67,000 PayLife Bankomat POS terminals, 87,000 acceptance points, as well as for Austrian Bankomat business, and for the issuer processing of debit card transactions on the 10 million Maestro Bankomat cards of the Austrian banks serviced by PSA.

In October 2020, Worldline and PSA Payment Services Austria, who have been partners for the past eight years, agreed to continue working together for a further five years. Worldline will continue to process all transactions made using Austrian debit cards on PSA’s behalf. In 2019, 1 billion transactions were processed under the previous agreement, which has now been extended for another five years.

From 2010 to 2014, SiNSYS had been responsible for processing the transactions of credit cards and prepaid cards serviced by PayLife. SiNSYS is 100% owned by Italian SIA. In September 2012, SIA (I) bought the 49% stake from Atos Worldline which it had in the SiNSYS joint venture. From January 2013, the merger of SiNSYS into SIA started and was complete in 2013. Thus, SIA became the issuer processor of PayLife Bank which was bought by SIX Payment Services (CH) in 2013. However, in 2014, SIX migrated the issuer processing of PayLife Bank from SiNSYS into its own issuer processing centre in Luxembourg, CETREL.

RBI – Raiffeisen Bank has established two card processing centres, based in Bratislava, RPC, and Kiev, UPC. The centres act as issuer processors and acquirer processors for members of the RBI group, respectively.

RBI also established a new regional centre – CRISP (Centralised Raiffeisen International Services & Payments SRL) – in Romania in 2007, primarily for SWIFT transactions. At end-2008, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania had migrated to the hub.

In September 2020, RBI partnered with Computop to propagate the expansion of omnichannel payments in the CEE region, enabling merchants connected to the Computop Paygate payment platform to gain access to local acquiring connections in thirteen CEE countries and in Austria. Merchants are being supported with a versatile payment platform and central credit card acceptance through RBI’s regional network. With the support and billing of credit cards being handled by RBI’s headquarters in Vienna, merchants can now take advantage of opportunities to sell to customers in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Bank Austria and SIA (I) – In August 2016, UniCredit Group announced that its global services company, UBIS, and Italian processor SIA signed a framework agreement for the sale of UBIS’s card processing activities in Italy, Germany and Austria (excluding Card Complete) for €500 million. At the same time, UniCredit agreed to enter into a ten-year card processing service contract with SIA. This operation concerns the management of around 13.5 million payment cards, 206,000 POS terminals and 12,000 ATMs of UBIS. The transaction was closed by the end of 2016.

In September 2021, BAWAG selected SIA as the technology partner for the management and processing of the credit and prepaid cards portfolio issued by BAWAG, easybank and PayLife. SIA will continue to offer various advanced services for the bank’s card products evolution enabling BAWAG to extend its footprint in the digital ecosystem.

Online Payment Service Processors (PSPs) 

Online payment service processors (PSPs) are specialised technical processors for all kind of secure online payments and mobile payments. Some of them also offer virtual PSP platform services (VPSP) for bank acquirers who want to take advantage of a kind of ‘internet network processor’.

Online shops of merchants are directly connected by an API interface or a hosted payment page either to the internet payment gateway of a bank acquirer, or they are connected to multi-acquirers through a PSP.

PSPs usually partner with more than one card acquirer and payment initiation service providers. Core services offered by PSPs may include payment gateways to card acquirers and other online payment service providers, online payment processing, risk management services, and collection services for merchants.

Security technologies applied to ensure secure online card payments include EMV tokenisation and strong 3D-Secure (MCSC, VbV, SafeKey) combined with one-time tokens. For card-less payment services, the security technologies applied include userID/password combined with one-time tokens and online banking access with one-time TAN.

Kalixa Accept – Founded in 2007, CQR Payments Solution was the payment service provider of bwin.party, one of the largest listed online gaming companies in the world. CQR acted as PSP and had been a licensed payment institution since 2009. In 2011, CQR said it had processed 34 million transactions with value of €2 billion and claimed to process payments for over 300 merchants, mostly in the online gaming sector. Through own card acquirer licenses, CQR was said to provide access to online card payments and to 200 alternative payment solutions. In April 2013, CQR and its sister organisation and Vincento (UK) were restructured as Kalixa Group and CQR became Kalixa Accept. In 2015, Kalixa extended its processing contract with Worldline.

In 2015, Vienna-founded Kalixa generated €22.7 million in revenue for the financial year ended 31 December 2015 and a loss before interest and tax of €7 million. In January 2017, GVC Holdings sold Kalixa Payments Group and its subsidiaries to privately held payments operator and investment firm Senjō Group for $30 million.

Paysafecard is an electronic prepaid product that allows for paying on the internet without access to a credit card or bank account. Paysafecard.com Wertkarten AG is an e-money institution founded in Austria. In 2020, Paysafecard served more than 600,000 retail outlets in 50 countries and converted cash into electronic money in the form of e-vouchers. In June 2012, Skrill (Moneybookers), one of Europe’s largest online payment providers and majority owned by Investcorp, announced the 100% acquisition of Paysafecard for $174 million. The acquisition was closed in February 2013. Skrill combined its wallet service with prepaid product solutions. In 2012, Paysafecard introduced the new MyPaysafecard wallet and expanded into Croatia (September) and to Hungary (December).

In February 2014, Skrill announced that customers in 24 European countries could use paysafecard to top up their Skrill Digital Wallets. In July 2015, paysafecard absorbed its competitor Ukash (UK) that was bought by Skrill, too.

From December 2016, Paysafecard customers in Austria, France, Portugal and Spain can activate new PINs more easily with Paysafecard direct. With the paysafecard app, the customer generates a barcode with the demanded value of up to €250 (i.e. from €10 to €100, €150, €200 or €250). At the POS, the sales employee scans this barcode or enters the related number manually into a terminal. Upon payment, the customer receives a transaction confirmation. Within a few minutes, the amount is available as a credit in the my paysafecard account.

In June 2018, Paysafe launched Paysafecash, a new online cash payment option for the sizeable number of online shoppers who still prefer to pay by cash. Paysafecash is live in 14 countries including Austria, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, the UK and Canada.

In September 2020, banking service Monese extended its partnership with Paysafecash to Austria, enabling Monese customers in Austria to use Paysafecash to add cash into their accounts. Selecting Paysafecash as the top-up method generates a barcode, which they can take to one of nearly 5,000 Paysafecash payment point in Austria to make the payment in cash. The partnership between Paysafe and Monese will be rolled out in a total of 12 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain.

In 2008, Wirecard (D) bought the leading Austrian PSP Qenta. Following the insolvency of Wirecard in 2020, Qenta was relaunched as independent PSP processor.

In 2011, PayLife built PayUnity as its commercial PSP brand of PayLife Service GmbH, a commercial PSP based on the technical Pay.On PSP platform. From 2015, PayUnity became a brand of SIX Payment Services Austria (now: Worldline).

In January 2018, the German PSP Heidelpay (now: Unzer), backed by private equity investor AnaCap Financial Partners, bought the Austrian PSP mPAY24 GmbH. Founded in 2001, Vienna-based mPAY24 is focussed on e-commerce payment processing services. Its e-commerce payments platform is used by around 2,000 merchants in Austria.

Leading Resident PSPs

mPAY24: Established Vienna-based PSP, providing a full-stack gateway with support for cards, eps, Sofort, PayPal, Apple Pay, and many alternative/local methods. mPAY24 serves both SMEs and enterprise merchants, focusing strongly on technical integration for e-commerce. It was taken over by Heidelpay (now Unzer) in 2019, further strengthening its cross-border reach.​

Qenta Payment CEE: Austrian PSP formerly known as Wirecard CEE, providing full payment gateway services for e-commerce, subscription businesses, and omni-channel payments. Supports a broad set of European and alternative payment methods, anti-fraud, and reporting tools.​

Viveum Payment: Offers gateway solutions, with the Worldline VPSP (Value Added Payment Service Platform) as a core engine. Viveum focuses on secure card and local payment acceptance, now part of Worldline’s expanded offering.​

DaoPay: Vienna-based, licensed PSP specializing in digital content, gaming, and microtransactions; enables payment via phone, SMS, carrier billing, and over 100 global methods, with API for e-commerce.​

DIMOCO Payments: Nearby but significant for Austria, providing telecom bill and alternative payments, with 100+ APMs for merchants in digital and mobile commerce.​

Cross-border & Foreign PSPs/Acquirers

Austrian merchants can also accept customers from abroad and connect to a broad range of international PSPs and acquirers, including:

Many of these serve multi-currency card acquiring, Open Banking, local payment methods like Sofort and giropay, and support merchants in omnichannel and gaming sectors.​

Acquiring and Acceptance

In Europe, most acquirers offer multi-channel card acceptance and value-added merchant services at POS terminals, mobile MPOS terminals and online shops. The leading acquirers usually act on a European level and offer their services cross-border.

Additionally, innovative acquirers also offer the acceptance of card-less payment services based on partner agreements with the issuer of those payment services (e.g. account-based payments, wallets, prepaid products).

Most acquirers either operate their own acquirer systems and ATM/POS/MPOS network service hubs, or they use the processing services of external processors. In order to service online merchants in Europe, they may operate their own PSP processing platforms, or they co-operate with one or more specialised online payment service processors (PSPs).

From 2009, European acquirers compete in their home markets, cross-border on a European level, and cross-channel at POS terminals as well as servicing online merchants. From 2016, innovative acquirers started to offer omni-channel and multi-payment acceptance.

By mid-2025, omni-channel acceptance includes the ability to service all channels (i.e. POS/MPOS terminals, mobile in-store, online shops, in-app), and to accept multiple payment means in all of these channels. Multi-payment services demanded by merchants include cards, IBAN-based payments (SCT, SDD), online wallets, digital wallets, prepaid products, and immediate payments.

Outlook – By mid-2025, Austrian acquirers face the following notable challenges:

Worldline and Card Complete are the dominant Mastercard and VISA acquirers. Other acquirers include Hobex and Erste Bank. Hobex is majority-owned by the regional Raiffeisen Bank Salzburg. American Express acquires its cards. DC Bank AG is the acquirer of Diners/Discover cards in Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and, from April 2014, also in Germany. Both have respective partner arrangements in Austria. In May 2018, Worldline (F) acquired SIX Payment Services (Austria).

Major cross-border acquirers in Austria include PAYONE (D), Concardis (D) and Elavon Merchant Services (IRL), PAYONE (D), the joint venture of DSV Group (D) and Ingenico Group (F), absorbed BS Card Services (D) and German Ingenico Payment Services (previously easycash).

In January 2016, Wirecard (D) signed a multi-channel payment acceptance contract with ÖBB, the Austrian Federal Railways. In September 2017, Wirecard provided a voucher platform for ÖBB. Between August and October, approximately 1.2 million Toffifee campaign packs had an ÖBB voucher code worth €5 on the inside of the packaging (applies for ÖBB online ticket purchases above €29 from 15 August to 20 December 2017. Wirecard technically processed the campaign on its platform that allows consumers to redeem their vouchers and complete transactions through several payment options. Both vouchers and credit cards were processed online using a single transaction ID.  Wirecard went into insolvency in June 2020.

In June 2016, Concardis became an acquirer of the Chinese Alipay payment service. From 2017, Concardis accepts Alipay payments in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. From 2019, PAYONE (D) was a joint venture of French based Ingenico Group (52%) and German savings bank association DSV Group (48%) until 2021 when part of its business was sold to Global Payments.

Table 9 illustrates the card brands accepted by the individual acquirer active in Austria as at mid-2023.

9 - Leading Acquirers in Austria
Domestic AcquirersAcceptance Brands offeredOwned by
AirPlus Austria Airplus, UATPLufthansa AirPlus (50%), AUA (50%)
card complete Service BankMastercard, VISA, JCB, UnionPay; Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit, V PAYUniCredit Bank Austria, Raiffeisen Group
Erste Bank Mastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit, V PAY Erste Group Bank
HobexMastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, Discover, JCB, UnionPay;
Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit, V PAY		Raiffeisen Banks (Salzburg, others)
Worldline SIX Payment Services AustriaMastercard, VISA, American Express, JCB, Diners, Discover, UnionPay;
Electron, V PAY, girocard, Bancontact, PostFinance; MasterPass, Alipay		Worldline Group (F)
American Express Austria American ExpressAmerican Express (US)
DC Bank AGDiners, Discover 2015: card complete (A)
Foreign AcquirersAcceptance Brands offeredOwned by
Concardis (D)Mastercard, VISA, AmExp, Diners, Discover, JCB, UnionPay
Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit, V PAY, ELV, girocard, Alipay		NEXI Group (I)
Elavon Merchant Service (IRL) Mastercard, VISA, AmExp, Diners, JCB;
Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit, V PAY, ELV, girocard		Elavon Group (IRL)
Global Payments Europe (UK)Mastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, Discover, JCB, UnionPay
Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit, V PAY, ELV, girocard		Global Payments (US)
InterCard (D)Mastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, Discover, JCB, UnionPay
Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit, V PAY, ELV, girocard		Verifone Group (US)
Note: the joint venture PAYONE absorbed the cross-border acquirers B+S Card Service (D) and Ingenico Payment Services (D).
Note: following the merger of Worldline, Ingenico Group and SIX Payment Services, in 2020, PAYONE had to sell its Austrian acquirer business to Global Payments Europe.
Source: PCM research

Erste Acquiring Joint Venture – In July 2015, Global Payments (US), CaixaBank (E), and Erste Group Bank (A), announced an agreement to form a joint venture to provide merchant acquiring and payment services in Czechia, Slovakia and Romania.

Global Payments and CaixaBank paid €30 million in cash to acquire a 51% majority ownership in the venture. Erste Group contributed its existing merchant acquiring businesses in each of the three countries to the joint venture and holds a 49% interest. The transaction was closed in June 2016. The joint venture offers acquiring services under the brand Global Payments.

In May 2021, Global Payments announced it was acquiring the customers from PAYONE GmbH, which is part of the Ingenico Group and operates a network of payment terminals in Austria. PAYONE had to sell part of its business in Austria for antitrust reasons, and Global Payments emerged as the best bidder in the process.

In June 2017, Stripe (US) launched its services ‘Managed Accounts for Stripe Connect’ in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and in the Netherlands. In May 2016, Stripe (US) launched its service in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway.

Payment Institutions in Austria

In 2024, there were six payment institutions resident in Austria. Authorised in another EEA member state, a total of 384 other cross-border payment institutions provided notification of operating in Austria under the EU passport system. Most of the institutions report payment services taking the form of remittance business.

ATM Terminal Infrastructure

Bank Austria, Erste Bank, and RBI operate their Foyer ATMs, ‘wall-through’ ATMs and their own ATM hubs. From mid-2012, Payment Services Austria (PSA) operates the Bankomat ATM network. All Austrian ATMs are interoperable, linked through the ATM network switch of PSA. Since 2008, First Data (now Fiserv) has been an independent white-label ATM service provider operating its own hub.

In 2007, the Austrian banks started replacing Bankomat ATMs by own Foyer ATMs re-integrating them into their own ATM network hubs. The EMV migration of ATMs was completed in 2012.

Austrian ATMs are open to debit cards (Debit Mastercard, Maestro, Cirrus, VISA Debit, V PAY, Electron, Plus, Eufiserv and girocard) and credit cards (Mastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, Discover, JCB, and UnionPay). Also, mobile prepaid recharging services are offered at most ATMs.

Most cash withdrawals are on domestic debit cards; although Austria is an important tourist destination, withdrawals by visitors are no longer significant since the advent of the euro.

OeNB reported 8,609 ATMs in 2024, down from 8,655 ATMs in 2023. According to PSA, the ATM total includes 7,534 Bankomat ATMs services by the Austrian banks and PSA.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen in the sharp drop in cash withdrawals. In 2024, there were 202.93 million withdrawals on cards (-2.38% from 2023) with the total value €51.00 billion (+1.94% from 2023). There were 1,964.3 withdrawals per ATM per month, and the ATV per ATM transaction amounted to €251.32.

In 2024, there were 93.38 million ATM cash withdrawals ‘on-us’ on top of the 109.56 million ATM cash withdrawals on cards ‘off-us’. Table 10 illustrates significant differences between ‘on-us’ and ‘off-us’ use of ATMs in Austria:

10 - ATMs and Cash Withdrawals in Austria
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
ATM Terminals9,0699,1658,9338,6558,6098,535-0.53%-4.21%-0.86%
- ATMs of PSA and Austrian banks7,5347,5347,2466,9616,9186,875-0.62%-5.88%-1.20%
- other ATMs and independent ATMs 1,5351,6311,6871,6941,6911,660-0.18%3.30%0.65%
Ø Number of TXs per ATM per month2,084.11,906.11,922.92,001.51,964.31,957.8-1.86%-26.81%-6.05%
Number of cash withdrawals ('off-us' in m)108.54102.52115.10113.28109.56107.75-3.29%-25.87%-5.81%
Value of cash withdrawals ('off-us' in €bn)15.6615.1917.5617.4617.2517.17-1.20%-12.85%-2.71%
ATV per cash withdrawal ('off-us')€144.32€148.17€152.59€154.14€157.46€159.322.15%17.56%3.29%
Number of cash withdrawals ('on-us' in m)118.27107.1191.0394.6093.3892.77-1.29%-34.07%-7.99%
Value of cash withdrawals ('on-us' in €bn)31.4331.4930.3132.5733.7534.973.62%0.15%0.03%
ATV per cash withdrawal ('on-us')€265.74€293.94€333.02€344.30€361.43€376.954.98%51.90%8.72%
Total withdrawals at Austrian ATMs (m)226.81209.63206.12207.88202.93200.53-2.38%-29.88%-6.85%
Total withdrawals value at Austrian ATMs (€bn)€47.09€46.68€47.88€50.03€51.00€52.141.94%-4.66%-0.95%
ATV per cash withdrawal (total)€207.63€222.65€232.27€240.68€251.32€260.014.42%35.97%6.34%
# ATM Terminals per 1m capita - Austria1,017.11,023.4986.8947.9938.0930.0-1.04%-7.34%-1.51%
# ATM Terminals per 1m capita - EU27 total685.3678.8641.3628.4628.4590.00.00%-27.03%-6.11%
Note: from 2014, OeNB reports 'on-us' cash withdrawals on cards made at ATMs of the cardholders' own bank.
Source: OeNB, PSA.

Cash-advance Services in Austria – Competition for ATMs 

In an Open Banking ecosystem, the dominant role of ATMs for cash withdrawal services may decline as more cash-advance and cash handling services are offered at retail outlets in Europe.

Cash in-Store – In parallel to ATM cash withdrawals on cards, the Austrian banks support cash-advance services on cards at POS terminals in retail outlets (see below).

Contactless ATMs – In May 2015, BAWAG P.S.K. and its partner Diebold Nixdorf developed a card-less ATM function, SmartCash, to introduce ATM cash withdrawals in all of its 500 branches without a card.

When a SmartCash withdrawal is ordered, a ten-digit code is generated either by BAWAG’s eBanking service or its eBanking app and transmitted to the user via text message. This code, which is valid for four hours after being sent to the user, can be used for a single withdrawal of cash in an amount between €10 and 400. Once the code is entered, it becomes invalid for further withdrawals.

In December 2016, Raiffeisen Group signed a deal to install 1,200 Diebold Nixdorf ATMs in its branches equipped with QR-code scanners and NFC readers. Consumers can pay their bills using the system’s QR-code reader by simply scanning the QR-code printed on the bill and making changes or confirming the information from the scanned bill using the ATM’s touchscreen display. Those who already have contactless cards can use the contactless card reader of the ATM.

Independent ATMs – In May 2008, First Data launched a partnership offering deployment of bank-branch independent ATMs, which accounted for only 6% of the national ATM estate. The first customer for this service was Spar, the Austrian supermarket chain, which installed ATMs in 110 of its 1,400 stores (including franchised outlets). Other clients using First Data ATM network processing services were OMV and ÖBB, the Austrian railway.

POS Terminal Infrastructure

The Austrian acquirers SIX Payment Services Austria (now Worldline), Card Complete, and Hobex operate their own POS networks. The foreign cross-border acquirers use their own POS networks.

Accepted brands at Austrian POS terminals are debit cards (Maestro, Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit, Electron, V PAY) and credit cards (Mastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, Discover, JCB, and UnionPay). The EMV migration of POS terminals was complete by end-2012.

Debit card acceptance is widespread in the food, petrol, transport, and hotel sectors. In restaurants, acceptance has increased with the advent of mobile POS terminals with GSM/GPRS communication.

It is noted that, from 2017, there is a legal requirement for using cash-less POS payments in combination with a fiscal printer solution. As at end-2018, de-facto all POS terminals were contactless capable.

In 2024, the ECB reported 239,158 POS terminals (+5.61% from 2023) connected to Austrian payment service providers. In the reporting year, there were 1,568.78 million POS payments (+11.79) with the total value of €56.16 billion (+7.38% from 2023). The ATV per POS payment amounted to €35.80, lower than in the previous year, and there were 546.6 payments per POS per month.

From 2014, OeNB now reports POS payments on cards excluding ATM withdrawals on Maestro cards but includes all Austrian payment service providers. However, the restated POS terminal numbers include POS terminals located in Austria and located abroad.

11 - POS Terminals in Austria
202020212022202320242024FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
POS terminals169,927184,620194,343226,464239,158259,6975.61%50.98%8.59%
Ø Number of TXs per POS per month460.3474.7535.5516.4546.6552.05.86%22.84%4.20%
Number of POS payments (m)938.631,051.661,248.811,403.271,568.781,720.3411.79%85.45%13.15%
- on domestic cards (m)728.58816.02902.25992.611,098.921,216.6110.71%77.44%12.15%
- on foreign cards (m)210.05235.64346.56410.66469.86503.7314.42%107.37%15.70%
Value of POS payments (€bn)36.4138.4947.6452.3056.1657.467.38%54.57%9.10%
- on domestic cards (€bn)27.6329.6832.9635.4237.9640.687.17%55.55%9.24%
- on foreign cards (€bn)8.788.8114.6816.8718.1916.777.81%52.57%8.82%
ATV per POS payment€38.79€36.60€38.15€37.27€35.80€33.40-3.95%-16.65%-3.58%
# POS Terminals per 1m capita - Austria19,056.920,615.921,467.624,802.426,058.028,295.95.06%46.04%7.87%
# POS Terminals per 1m capita - EU27 total31,503.734,817.042,741.747,601.147,601.152,170.60.00%58.14%9.60%
Cash-advances at POS terminals (m)0.240.210.193.603.713.763.00%1319.90%70.00%
Cash-advances at POS terminals (€m)6.926.405.92340.68350.90356.163.00%4669.60%116.62%
ATV per cash-advance on cards€29.19€30.48€31.84€94.69€94.69€94.690.00%235.91%27.42%
Note: restated POS terminal numbers reported include now all POS terminals located in Austria and located abroad.
Note: from 2014, OeNB figures exclude cash withdrawals on cards, but include now all acquirers active in Austria.
Source: ECB, OeNB.

Among the individual acquirers, Worldline SIX Payment Services Austria reported 68,000 POS terminals and 87,000 acceptance points (2015, no subsequent update), Card Complete claimed to have over 43,000 POS terminals (2021), and Hobex reported over 40,000 POS terminals at 26,000 merchants in Austria and abroad (2021).

Contactless POS Terminals – As of at-end-2024, there were 234,271 contactless POS terminals (97.9%) in Austria. Card Complete, Hobex, Worldline and all cross-border acquirers now install contactless capable POS terminals only.

Cash-Advance services at POS terminals are available in Austria. Participating retailers were granted a waiver for offering the services as non-banks. Customers can withdraw up to €100 cash on top of their purchase with a debit card without incurring fees, and they are able to do this several times per day.

In 2024, there were an estimated 3.71 million cash-advance transactions (2023: 3.60 million) with estimated total value €350.90 million (2023: €340.68 million).

In February 2017, retailer REWE Group partnered with SIX Payment Services to launch a cash-advance service for its Austrian supermarket customers shopping with a Maestro debit card. REWE Group said to provide this service to all its 1,500 outlets of its trading companies Billa, Merkur and Penny.

MPOS Terminals – Mobile merchants (i.e. no fixed outlet) have started to use their smartphone and tablet PCs as a kind of mini-POS+ECR device with added chip reader dongle. From late 2012, Zettle, SumUp, Miura, Adyen (NL), and others have launched their MPOS services in Europe and expanded into Austria. Further, merchants can initiate MOTO-like card payments on their smartphones and tablets by downloading a payment app.

All Austrian acquirers have started to offer MPOS terminals. In 2015, Card Complete launched completePay, its own MPOS terminal for small and mobile merchants. It is composed of a MPOS terminal (complete MPOS), a cash register app for tablets and smartphones (complete mKasse), and a merchant reporting tool (complete mKassabuch).

In September 2016, Hobex partnered with TECS (A) and Spire Payments (UK) and started its MPOS terminal services in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia.

In January 2019, Volksbank Austria partnered with SumUp and launched MPOS terminals for its merchants.

In January 2019, Austrian mobile network operator A1 and cross-border acquirer Concardis (D) signed an agreement to provide one-stop A1 Payment services for Austrian merchants. A1 Payment comprises payment terminals, combined with service packages such as NFC and a mobile wallet, debit and credit card acceptance as well as transaction processing for merchants. SIM cards and mobile data packages are included.

SmartPOS Terminals – In 2018, POS terminal vendors launched innovative new types of POS terminals. Named SmartPOS terminals, they combine the electronic cash register functionality (ECR) used by merchants in outlets with a contactless POS payment terminal and merchant services in the cloud. For the very first time, the so far separated ECR devices and POS terminals are integrated in just one checkout solution device. From late 2018, SmartPOS terminal vendors like Castles, Clover, Ingenico, Justtide, Handpoint, PAX, Poynt, Verifone, Worldline, and others have launched their SmartPOS devices and services in Europe. It is believed that Austrian SME merchants will embrace SmartPOS terminals.

In June 2018, First Data launched its new MPOS terminals with integrated touch-screen PIN-Pad, Clover Mini and Clover Flex, in Germany and Austria. They provide merchants with custom hardware and software, plus girocard certification for the German market. Both products can accept a variety of payment options including PIN or signature entry, NFC, EMV and mag stripe transactions. They can be used as standalone devices or integrated with multiple Clover solutions for a connected commerce experience.

In October 2022, after completing the sale of its POS division, Worldline announced the closing of the acquisition of 55% of the capital of SoftPos.eu, which transforms Android mobile devices into secure payment terminals. The acquisition is part of Worldline’s strategy to provide payment solutions adapted to all forms of commerce and move towards a more advanced POS terminal business. On the back of SoftPos.eu, Worldline will launch Worldline Tap on Mobile, an end-to-end solution, based on an Android app, allowing all merchants of all sizes to accept payments using a smartphone, tablet, or a professional terminal.

Remote Payments on the Internet – Cards & More

As of 2024, Austria was ranked the 27th largest market worldwide for e-commerce. From 2015, due to EU VAT regulation, Austrian merchants had to collect the applicable VAT rate for cross-border sales based on the consumers’ residence. A VAT e-commerce package came into force in July of 2021, making all commercial goods imported into the EU from a third country or third territory subject to VAT. From July 2021, the tax exemption for imports into the EU no longer applies to goods with a value of less than €22.

Internet Use – In 2024, 95% of Austrians used the internet and 75% of all internet users have purchased in online shops in the last 12 months. According to Handelsverband, the COVID-19 pandemic boosted online shopping with a 17% increase in domestic e-commerce, and the number of online marketplaces grew by 32% from 2019 to reach 14,500 in 2020. The increase of digitalisation in 2020 was equivalent to 12 years of growth in Austria.

In 2021, the e-commerce share of total retail sales in Austria was still relatively low, at around 13%.

According to Austrian retailer associations, the Austrian online B2C e-commerce value of goods and services accounted for €9.6 billion at end-2024, showing a CAGR of 8.11% from 2020. Excluding now distant sales amounts, the B2C e-commerce amount per capita accounted for on average €1,046.0 while it was €1,399.6 per online buyer. The e-commerce revenue (eGDP) a 2.0% market share in the Austrian GDP.

12 - Internet Use in Austria
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Households with internet access90%95%93%95%95%96%-0.02%5.51%1.08%
Last internet use (individuals, 12 months)89%93%94%96%95%95%-1.04%7.95%1.54%
Internet users who bought online74%68%70%75%75%73%-0.35%6.08%1.19%
Last online purchase (individuals, 12 month)66%63%66%72%71%69%-1.39%14.52%2.75%
Last online purchase (individuals, 3 month)56%54%57%62%62%64%0.00%15.57%2.94%
Mobile phone subscription per 100 inhabitants120.3%122.0%123.4%122.0%124.0%125%1.64%2.66%0.53%
Online B2C eCommerce value (€bn)7.568.329.109.409.6010.102.13%47.69%8.11%
Annual B2C eCommerce growth rate/year16.3%10.1%9.4%3.3%2.1%5.2%---
Ø B2C e-Commerce amount per capita €847.8€929.1€1,005.2€1,029.5€1,046.0€1,100.51.60%42.86%7.39%
Ø B2C e-Commerce amount per online buyer######€1,371.5€1,431.7€1,372.7€1,399.6€1,515.11.96%34.67%6.13%
Sources: Eurostat, Handelsverband.

Cards on the Internet (CNP) – All cards with international brands are accepted in Austrian online shops as long as the merchant has signed an acceptance contract. Since end-2010, online payments on Austrian Maestro cards have been phased out. However, SIX payment Services (Austria), Card Complete and various e-money institutions issue prepaid cards and virtual cards for internet use only.

Austrian acquirers push for 3D-Secure payments on credit cards and cooperate with the Austrian payment service providers (PSPs) which offer other e-payment services to Austrian merchants.

Additionally, Austrian merchants accept IBAN-based online credit transfers and direct debits, e.g. SOFORT, eps, iDEAL, giropay, ELV and BlueCode. In addition, web-based MOTO solutions and Dynamic Currency Conversion are offered.

The Austrian e-Payment Mix – According to the OeNB, the Austrian e-payment mix preferred by online buyers is dominated by cards (25%), e-wallets (25%), online transfers (12%), debit card (8%), followed by SEPA direct debit, mobile payments, instalment payments and cash on delivery.

Remote Mobile Payments on the internet – Since 2009, online buyers with a high affinity for smartphones have started to use their mobile phones for shopping on the mobile internet. Mobile online shops can be accessed by mobile internet, by mobile app, or by scanning a 2D QR-code displayed in a newspaper or at a bus station. Thus, remote mobile phone payments are executed either by using the e-payment page of the mobile online shop or by using payment apps of a PSP or an acquirer.

Also, merchants can download a payment app from their acquirer in order to initiate MOTO payments with cards and/or online direct debits. Leading Austrian merchants have issued their own mobile apps including loyalty (e.g. e-vouchers, discounts, outlet finder, QR-code scanning) and an IBAN-based direct debit payment function (e.g. BlueCode).

Mobile Payments – Overview 

In 2024, 124% of Austrians have subscribed to a mobile phone. Many Austrians own more than one mobile phone. 94% own a smartphone, up from 56% in 2014. Also, tablet penetration has jumped to 42% from 22% in 2014.

Since 2009, the next generation of mobile services and payments has started, pushed by the online buyers’ high affinity to smartphones and tablets and, also, by new disruptive technologies (1D-barcodes, QR-code, Bluetooth BLE, and Near Field Communication NFC).

Mobile initiatives in Austria are piloting and using the new technologies either as initiating form factors to bridge to online shops on the internet (1D-barcodes, QR-code, NFC) or to enable contactless access to retail POS outlets (1D-barcodes, QR-code, BLE, Bluetooth Low Energy, NFC Stickers, Mobile NFC Phones), e. g.:

The Austrian m-Payment Mix – There are no official m-payment mix statistics, but PSP information indicates that the domestic m-payment mix is now rather similar to the e-payment mix on the internet (see Remote Payments on the Internet section).

Mobile Payment Initiative Details

In 2025, the various European mobile payment initiatives can be grouped into:

Mobile Payments and QR-Codes, Retailer Apps and BlueCode direct debits

BlueCode direct debits (VeroPay) – The Secure Shopping App of payment service provider VeroPay (now: BlueCode) and retailer MPREIS enables mobile payments at many MPREIS electronic cash registers (ECR). Once registered for the service, the user links the bank account details to a virtual private label card. After typing the personal PIN-code, the App displays a unique 1D/2D barcode (i.e. the virtual card number) on the screen of the smartphone. The user shows the barcode on the phone to the scanner of the ECR at MPREIS. Once scanned the purchase is paid using direct debit payments (i.e. SDD Cor1). Pre-requisite for the service is an online banking account with a participating bank (e.g. Hypo Tirol Bank).

In 2016, Secure Payment Technologies (A) launched its omni-channel capable IBAN-based direct debit service, BlueCode, with payment initiation based on a QR code in Germany.

In June 2019, Alipay teamed up with six mobile wallet providers in Europe: Bluecode (A), ePassi (SF), Momo Pocket (ESP), Pagaqui (P), Pivo (SF) and Vipps (N), which all have adopted a QR-code format from Chinese payment provider Alipay to ensure digital payment interoperability and improve the international reach of customers’ wallets. Alipay’s Chinese users will be able to make payments at merchants in other countries covered by the agreement.

In 2024, Bluecode and Ant International (Alipay+) announced a strategic partnership. Bluecode became the first interoperable payment network partner of Alipay+ in Europe, enabling Bluecode users to pay with their app at all Alipay+-supported merchants across Europe (tens of thousands of locations, initially focused on UEFA EURO 2024 in Germany).​

Over 5 million app users (Bluecode and partner apps) could use this functionality at launch, with planned rollout to more than 300 banks in Germany and Austria that have adopted Bluecode QR technology.​

The vision is “payment roaming”: Europeans pay abroad with their domestic banking app/Bluecode just as they do at home, while Alipay+ users can pay at Bluecode merchants, all using interoperable QR codes.​

European Payments Initiative (EPI) – In July 2020, a group of 16 major Eurozone banks announced the start of the implementation phase of a new unified payment scheme, the European Payment Initiative (EPI).

In 2021, the 31 founding bank groups from seven European countries and two third-party acquirers had included:

In March 2022, EPI gave up on its effort to build a rival to Mastercard and VISA in Europe after more than half its members left. However, 13 shareholders confirmed on February 25th that they remain convinced of the strategic value of a unified payment solution, leveraging instant payments, and want to go ahead. Therefore, the EPI interim company is now adapting its scope and objectives to this new dimension excluding cards.

The remaining shareholders of EPI include Banco Santander, Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband, Groupe BPCE, ING Bank, KBC Bank, La Banque Postale, NETS (NEXI), Société Générale and Worldline.

In April 2023, the European Payments Initiative acquired the Dutch payment scheme iDeal and, the mobile payments app, Payconiq, both supported by a host of Belgian and Dutch banks.

In July 2024, EPI launched its mobile-first wallet and instant account-to-account payment solution, Wero, for customers of German Sparkassen and Volksbanken, Raiffeisenbanken.

Since its launch in July 2024, Wero has expanded its availability across Europe. By June 2025, the service had been introduced in Germany, France, and Belgium, with plans to extend to Luxembourg in June 2026 and the Netherlands in 2027. The wallet has gained significant traction, reaching approximately 70 million users by September 2025, with 43.5 million active users across the three initial countries.

The ambition of EPI is to create a unified pan-European payment solution leveraging Instant Payments, SCTINST, offering a card for consumers and merchants across Europe, a digital wallet, and P2P payments.

The solution aims to become a new standard payment service for European consumers and merchants in all types of transactions including in-store, online, cash withdrawal and “peer-to-peer” in addition to existing international payment scheme solutions.

EPI’s objective is to offer a digital payment solution that can be used anywhere in Europe and to supersede the fragmented landscape of domestic payment services that currently still exists. In doing so, EPI founders are responding to merchant and consumer communities that have been calling for payment initiatives to take a more pan-European approach.

EPI will first and foremost benefit European citizens, and it will also bring tangible benefits to European merchants, by offering them a seamless, competitive, and unified pan-European payment service solution that is also available to all European consumers.

The beginning of the implementation phase is expected to materialise through the creation of an interim company in Brussels, Belgium, which will set out clear deliverables including the completion of the technical and operational roadmap and initiating the implementation work. The accomplishments of this interim company will be evaluated by each bank before moving on to the EPI’s final corporate structure.

Wero – In September 2023, EPI has selected ‘Wero’ as the commercial name for its forthcoming digital wallet solution. The Wero digital wallet will be rolled out in phases, initially to support account-to-account based instant P2P and consumer-to-business payments, followed by online and mobile shopping payments and then point-of-sale payments. EPI aims to launch Wero by mid-2024 in Belgium, France, and Germany, followed by the Netherlands, and aims to extend to other countries in the years to come. By November 2024, Wero had reached ~14 million users and processed ~8 million transactions in the live markets (Germany, France, Belgium) since its launch in July 2024.

As of September 2025, Wero has rapidly expanded its user base, reaching 43.5 million registered users across Germany, France, and Belgium. In Germany alone, approximately 1.3 million users are utilizing the service through Sparkassen banks. The platform has processed over €7.5 billion in transactions, underscoring its growing adoption.

In December 2023, EPI completed its first instant A2A payment transaction in a proof-of-concept between customers from German Sparkasse Elbe-Elster and French Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne (Groupe BPCE). The inaugural transaction, worth 10 euros, was sent from a German account to a French account using SCTINST and the EPI’s digital wallet.

Central Bank Digital Currencies, Cryptocurrency Products 

In 2024, the Austrian payment ecosystem was composed of traditional cash payments, digital cryptocurrency products of independent payment service providers and research and development of central bank digital currencies, CBDC. The regulation of cryptocurrencies is becoming increasingly relevant as independent cryptocurrency products have grown more prevalent, posing challenges for regulators and national central banks.

In July 2023, the European Union introduced the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which aims to standardize cryptocurrency regulation across member states, including Luxembourg. This regulation addresses various aspects of crypto assets, such as market integrity, consumer protection, and financial stability, while also promoting innovation in the sector. Under MiCA, crypto-asset service providers will have specific obligations to protect users’ wallets and mitigate investment risks.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CDBC) – The Digital Cash Challenge 

Central bank digital currency (CBDC), also called digital fiat currency or digital base money, is a digital currency issued by a national central bank (NCB), rather than by a commercial bank. It is also a liability of the NCB and denominated in the sovereign currency, as is the case with physical banknotes and coins.

All CBDCs are under the authority of the respective national central bank, and they are part of the domestic cash payment ecosystem. Rather than a new currency, CBDC is a form of central bank electronic money that could be used by households and businesses to make payments. In addition, most CBDC implementations will likely not use or need any sort of distributed ledger such as a blockchain.

Unlike “retail CBDC,” which is generally designed as a central bank liability universally accessible to individuals and businesses within a jurisdiction’s financial system, “wholesale CBDC” refers to a digitized central bank liability designed for sizable (generally interbank) transactions, and for which access is limited to certain financial institutions.

National Central Banks (NCBs) have been providing trusted money to the public for hundreds of years as part of their public policy objectives. Trusted money is a public good. It offers a common unit of account, store of value and medium of exchange for the sale of goods and services and settlement of financial transactions. Providing cash for public use is an important tool for central banks. Yet the world is changing.

Even before COVID-19, cash use for payments was declining fast and convenient digital payments have grown enormously in volume and diversity. To evolve and pursue their public policy objectives in a digital world, central banks are actively researching the pros and cons of offering a digital currency to the public, a “general purpose” CBDC.

Central banks’ interest in CBDC has increased as a potential means of delivering their public policy objectives. Profound, ongoing changes across finance, technology and society, as well as the recent COVID-19 crisis, provided additional impetus for the research of, and experimentation related to, CBDCs.

CBDC is a national digital currency issued by the central bank that is expected to replace or coexist with fiat money and hold the same value. Mobile money, on the other hand, utilises existing commercial banking-based accounting to manage customer wallet balances based on an exchange with cash or lines of credit and loans.

CBDC is a direct liability on the central bank as it is the main issuer of the currency, whereas digital money is the liability of commercial banks and other authorised financial institutions using funds on account. Although some implementation approaches propose that CBDC can be implemented in either an indirect or hybrid form, its liability remains on the respective national central bank.

Background on CBDC Evolution

In October 2020, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, Sveriges Riksbank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a report, Central bank digital currencies: foundational principles and core features, identifying the foundational principles necessary for any publicly available CBDC to help central banks meet their public policy objectives.

The report focused on a publicly available “general purpose” CBDC (a digital payment instrument, denominated in the national unit of account, that is a direct liability of the central bank).

A “wholesale” CBDC, restricted to financial institutions, is also an active area of exploration, notes the report, for central banks but one that carries different opportunities, challenges, and risks. The report explored the use cases for, and challenges and opportunities arising from, the possible issuance of a general purpose CBDC.

In September 2021, the same seven central banks and the BIS followed up with the publication of a new set of reports exploring the potential of retail CBDCs, including policy options and practical implementation issues. While none of the central banks has yet decided to proceed with a retail CBDC, they recognise such an instrument would have wide-ranging implications. Delivering on the future needs of consumers would require systems that encourage innovation, choice and competition among a diverse mix of intermediaries.

BIS reported that a 2021 survey of central banks found that “86% are actively researching the potential for CBDCs, 60% were experimenting with the technology and 14% were deploying pilot projects.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is piloting a ‘digital yuan’, known as e-CNY, in various cities, often in association with major sporting events, such as the Winter Olympics.

The ECB published a paper on the potential of a “digital euro” in October 2020, exploring the “benefits and risks” of such an initiative. It completed a public consultation in January 2021 and a series of focus groups in December 2021. Its investigation stage is expected to continue until October 2023, after which the ECB “will decide whether to start developing a digital euro.”

The US Federal Reserve reported in February 2022 that while it has made no decisions about “whether to pursue or implement” a CBDC, it was “exploring the potential benefits and risks of CBDCs from a variety of angles and was inviting public feedback on discussion papers.

The Bank of Japan said in October 2020 that it had no plans for a CBDC and was committed to maintain the cash system as long as there was public demand for it. It nevertheless intended to explore technical feasibility through a proof of concept, consider institutional arrangements and coordinate approaches with domestic and international stakeholders. In 2023, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has announced that it will begin a pilot for its digital yen with commercial financial institutions. In February 2023, Bank of Japan has embarked on a CBDC trial.

In June 2023, the BIS and BoE said they completed a CBDC pilot project involving CBDCs jointly run by the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). Project Rosalind was designed to explore how a “universal and extensible API layer” could connect central bank and private sector infrastructures and enable retail CBDC payments. The project also sought to develop a number of retail-CBDC use cases.

According to the BIS and BoE, the project has successfully demonstrated that “a well-designed API layer could work with different private sector applications and central bank ledger designs and that a set of simple and standardised API functionalities could support a diverse range of use cases”.

In all, the project led to the development of 33 API functionalities and examined 30 retail CBDC cases including peer-to-peer transfers, retail payments for goods and services and small-value business transactions.

While CBDCs are still in experimental phases across major economies, 2024 has seen increased momentum towards real-world implementation, with several countries, notably China and the ECB, moving closer to full-scale rollouts. Public-private collaboration, technological innovation, and privacy concerns remain central to future CBDC development. Central banks worldwide continue to balance innovation with maintaining public trust and financial stability in this rapidly evolving space.

Global Status of CDBCs 

Most National Central Banks (NCBs) are involved in different stages of a CDBC project. Especially, the NCBs have different views on which kind of CDBC they would intend to launch as a digital currency:

As of 2023, the global CDBC status reveals that four central banks – Nigeria (e-Naira), Eastern Caribbean (D-Cash), Jamaica (JAM-DEX), and the Bahamas (Sand Dollar) – have introduced a domestic CBDC scheme.

Six countries have launched a CDBC pilot: France, Canada, China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Ghana.

The NCBs of most other countries are involved in either a CDBC proof-of-concept phase – including Norway, Hungary, and Sweden – or they are still in a CDBC research stage.

So far, Ecuador is the only country that has cancelled its CBDC ambitions, Dinero electronico.

CDBC, the European Union and the Digital Euro

In July 2021, the Estonian Central Bank released a report about its experiment with the ECB and the central banks of Spain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, and the Netherlands to assess the functionality of the digital euro. The project was able to conduct 300,000 transactions per second, with an average rate of less than two seconds per transaction.

In June 2023, the European Commission (EC) has published its legislative proposal establishing the legal framework for a possible digital euro, stressing that the CBDC would be a compliment to, not replacement for, cash.

A digital euro would be available alongside existing national and international private means of payment, such as cards or applications. It would work like a digital wallet, with people and businesses able to pay with it anytime and anywhere in the euro area.

The digital euro would be available for payments both online and offline. While online transactions would offer the same level of data privacy as existing digital means of payments, offline payments would essentially be like paying with cash – with nobody able to see what people are paying for.

The digital euro would be distributed by banks and other payment service providers, with basic services provided to people free of charge. Merchants would be required to accept the digital currency unless they are cash-only firms.

The EC’s proposal still needs to be adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council before the European Central Bank decides whether to roll out a digital euro. Notably, the European Central Bank (ECB) is involved in the preparation phase, which will run until 2025. During this time, technical experimentation and legal discussions are ongoing before any formal rollout decisions can be made​.

As of 2025, the digital euro remains in development but has advanced beyond its early investigation stage. The European Central Bank (ECB) concluded its two-year investigation phase in October 2023 and entered a two-year preparation phase that runs until October 2025. During this stage, the ECB is refining the design, engaging market participants, testing prototypes, and drafting a comprehensive rulebook.

In 2024, the ECB published two progress reports (in June and December) and a third on in July 2025, detailing technical work, design choices (e.g. offline use, calibration, holding limits) and collaboration with stakeholders. The most recent report included further refinement of the rulebook, more user research, and expanded experimentation. The ECB launched an innovation platform that invited private and public sector actors (banking, fintech, merchants) to test ideas, use cases, conditional payments, and prototype features. Around 70 market participants are reported to have been engaged.

On the legal side, the European Commission’s draft regulation for a digital euro is still under negotiation by the European Parliament and Council. Adoption of this regulation is essential before the ECB can issue the digital euro. ECB leaders, including Christine Lagarde, have called on lawmakers to accelerate this legislative process. By October 2025, the ECB has indicated a second phase of the preparation for the Digital Euro. By then, the ECB will have prepared an outreach plan, procurement standards, and technology providers.

Pros and Cons of CBDCs

According to research by the Bank of England, BIS, and by several other central banks, the benefits of CBDCs include supporting increased innovation in the payment system with:

Possible challenges related to use of CBDCs could include:

The ECB commissioned multiple exploratory reports on the feasibility of a digital euro in 2020 and 2021. The ECB’s working paper suggests a two-tier system for a “general purpose” CBDC. In July 2021, the ECB announced that it would launch a 24-month investigation phase for the digital euro project, which aims to address key issues regarding the design and distribution of a digital euro. The investigation phase will include focus groups, prototyping and conceptual work. In February 2022, the European Commission announced that it will propose a bill that would serve as the legal foundation for the issuance of a digital euro by the ECB. In May 2022, Christine Lagarde stated that she would be willing to back the digital Euro. By June 2023, the ECB and European Commission had significantly advanced their legislative and technical work, moving closer to launching a pilot phase for the digital euro in 2024. The pilot phase is expected to assess the practical implementation of the digital euro, following the completion of the current investigation period​.

The working paper states that the use of CBDC for retail payments is the primary use-case for the development of a digital Euro. The paper also rejects the motivation of using CBDC as a store of value, which would involve consumers switching deposits from commercial banks into CBDC. The working paper also recommends that a CBDC should be interest-bearing, with attractive interest rates offered for smaller sums suitable for payments and lower rates available for larger amounts.

CBDC and Austria

In 2020, BSI stated that the issuance of a digital euro could have a significant impact on society as a whole, which is why it invited participation in the Eurosystem’s public discussion with regard to the expected attributes of the digital euro held between October 2020 and January 2021. BSI said it aims to ensure that a digital euro that complements and coexists with cash serves the needs of its users, meets the technological expectations, and is supported with the right legislative foundation. The final decision on the potential issuance of a digital euro is expected to be taken by the Eurosystem in the next few years.

In October 2021 the Eurosystem initiated the investigation phase of the Digital Euro project, which is aimed at responding to key questions related to the issuance of the digital euro. BIS is formulating the foundation of the digital euro within Eurosystem working bodies. At the same time, it stated it would ensure the full and timely notification of the Slovenian public regarding progress on the project, and to this end in March 2021 the BIS organised a public debate with the aim of exchanging positions and viewpoints on the challenges and opportunities associated with the issuance of the digital euro. It also organised several events in 2021 for interested experts, who had the chance to present their concepts and analyses concerning the digital euro, along with their views of the possibilities of implementing the digital euro in Slovenia’s payment environment.

Austria is considered to be in the research phase, according to reporting. However, this point is debatable because it was reported that the Oesterreichische Nationalbank is more so looking at the broader digitalization of money, than CBDCs specifically. As of 2024, the OeNB states explicitly that work on the digital euro remains one of its strategic priorities (alongside cash, sustainability, digital tech). According to the 2024 OeNB report, the digital euro, if adopted, would be issued by the Eurosystem, regulated like cash, and available to citizens via banks and payment-service providers (as wallets, apps or cards), similar to how cash is distributed today. Offline and online payment functionality is envisaged, as is broad acceptance across merchants, individuals and institutions. The digital euro would supplement (not replace) cash and existing payment instruments.

Cryptocurrencies EU

The regulation of crypto assets and related services across Europe is not standardised and is highly fragmented. While no nation has outright banned usage of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and others, regulators have not formed a consensus over how to legislate such a quickly fluctuating market, where new cryptocurrencies emerge faster than regulators can catch up to.

The current approach across Europe is to adapt existing legislations to encompass cryptocurrencies, however, this is unlikely to be efficient as consumer and business usage changes.

In the European Union, the fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) covers certain crypto assets under the term “virtual currencies”, but it does not provide a harmonised approach. As a result, each Member State has created its own regulatory regime for transactions related to “virtual currencies” or crypto assets.

In response, the European Commission proposed the Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) regulation in 2020 as part of the Digital Finance Strategy, with MiCA expected to come into force in 2022 and will be directly applicable in all Member States after an 18-month transition period. MiCA will result in a harmonised set of rules for products and services and legal certainty related to crypto assets throughout the European Union in 2024. This would enable a larger number of investors to be active in this area and to use distributed ledger technology (DLT).

MiCA is to apply to all persons who want to issue crypto assets or provide services related to crypto assets in the EU.

The MiCA proposal is intended to lay down uniform rules on transparency and disclosure requirements for the issuance, offer to the public and the admission to trading of crypto assets. In addition, there are rules on the authorisation and supervision of crypto asset service providers and their issuers.

The main focus lies with the issuers of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens. The Regulation intends to regulate the operation, organisation and governance of issuers of asset referenced tokens and e-money tokens and crypto asset service providers. There will also be investor protection rules for the issuance, trading, exchange and custody of crypto assets. In addition, measures to prevent market abuse are to be included in the Regulation to ensure the integrity of the crypto assets markets.

In June 2022, the EU Council President and European Parliament reached agreement on MiCA regulation, ruling that crypto asset service providers will require authorisation to operate in the EU, not including NFTs or media-related digital assets.

Under the agreement, the regulatory framework will protect investors and consumers, while ensuring financial stability and enabling innovation and growth. The regulations will help protect consumers from fraud and scams, as crypto asset service providers will be liable if they lose assets and fail to protect investors’ wallets. The European Banking Authority (EBA) will form a public register of non-compliant crypto asset providers.

The regulation will also implement restrictions on stablecoins, with stablecoin issuers to be supervised by the EBA and their “holders will be offered a claim at any time and free of charge.”

Unregulated Cryptocurrency Products – Background 

Regulators and national central banks are challenged by unregulated independent cryptocurrency products. Whereas CBDCs are under the authority of the central bank, almost all cryptocurrencies are decentralised, and not controlled or managed by any central authority.

Obviously, financial market authorities and the national central banks are not in favour of unregulated cryptocurrency products, and they see them as a systematic risk for the financial system. Their intention to regulate the respective cryptocurrency exchange platforms has gained momentum.

Cryptocurrencies, originally designed as a store of value, are digital assets, developed and maintained on decentralised blockchains, and they can be used as a medium of exchange or payment method. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popular forms of cryptocurrencies worldwide used by consumers and businesses for transactions.

As of 2022, over 400 million people worldwide used cryptocurrencies, with merchants and businesses in more sectors accepting it as a form of payment. The major payment schemes VISA and Mastercard, PayPal and along with a growing number of financial institutions, have launched services allowing consumers to purchase or use cryptocurrencies for a range of applications.

According to a 2022 Deloitte survey, around two-thirds (64%) of surveyed merchants indicated that their customers have significant interest in using digital currencies for payments, and 83% expect consumer interest in digital currencies for payments to increase or significantly increase over the next 12 months.

In addition, merchants are motivated by the prospect of enabling immediate access to funds (40% of respondents), taking advantage of blockchain-based innovations in decentralised digital finance (39%), and allowing in-house management of the revenue cycle/treasury/finance department (39%).

Over half (54%) of large retailers (with revenues of $500 million and up) have invested more than $1 million on enabling digital currency payments, while only 6% of small retailers (with revenues of under $10 million) did so.

A 2022 survey from Checkout.com found a sharp rise in people wanting to use cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, with 40% of 18-35-year-old consumers citing their desire to experiment with using crypto as a payment method, up from less than 30% in 2021. Meanwhile, over 80% of businesses say offering crypto has attracted new customers, led to a decrease in chargebacks, while just over 60% have seen higher authorisation rates accepting crypto payments.

A recent report by Triple-A for 2024–2025 reports estimate cryptocurrency ownership in Europe has climbed to approximately 50 million people, up from around 30 million in 2023. Crypto adoption in Europe grew to 8.9% of the adult population in 2025, driven by greater institutional access, major regulatory changes (like MiCA), and clearer frameworks for exchanges and wallet providers. This keeps Europe’s ownership rate ahead of previous years, though still trailing regions like Asia and the Americas in terms of total share and growth rate.

Stablecoins

Stablecoins are a type of asset-backed cryptocurrency, whose value is typically pegged to the value of an underlying asset such as USD, GBP, or commodities like gold. Stablecoins are partially backed by real assets, and they are designed to have a value pegged to real-world assets, therefore avoiding the extreme volatility that affects cryptocurrencies.

Stablecoins offer the potential benefits of cryptocurrencies, like transparency, security, immutability, and decentralised control, while maintaining the guarantees and stability that come with using fiat currency. Stablecoins have potential to be used in cross-border payments, providing a secure, online environment for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions to take place without needing decentralised cryptocurrencies or to pay fees to convert money into local currencies.

As of mid-2025, there were more than 200 stablecoins globally, comprising a market that’s worth approximately $230 billion.

A survey of central banks in January 2021 found that two-thirds of respondents are actively researching the potential impact of stablecoins on financial stability. However, some regulators in the US and China, consider stablecoins as a potential serious risk to financial systems. The risk is especially high with centralised coins, such as those backed by fiat and issued by private organisations, as economic power would be disproportionately concentrated on a single entity.

The widespread use of stablecoins in payment platforms could also pose a systemic risk, in relation to the validation and confirmation of stablecoin transactions which could interfere with payment systems. If stablecoin users couldn’t access money in their e-wallets and businesses couldn’t receive payments, economic activity would be greatly disrupted. However, these risks have not deterred major institutions like JP Morgan and VISA to explore stablecoin use cases via partnerships and internal R&D.

Tether As of mid-2025, Tether remains the largest stablecoin globally, holding a market share of over 60%. This dominance is driven by its massive liquidity, broad adoption across exchanges and blockchains, and large reserve holdings, especially in U.S. Treasuries. Its nearest competitors include USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD), and decentralized stablecoins like DAI, although Tether’s market share far exceeds them. Recent reports have shown Tether’s involvement in major financial markets and even Bitcoin mining, further reinforcing its stronghold on the crypto landscape.

Regarding Facebook’s Diem (formerly Libra) project, it was officially abandoned. Diem’s assets were sold off to Silvergate Capital in early 2022, marking the end of the initiative that once aimed to create a globally accessible digital currency. Regulatory pressures and internal challenges led to the dissolution of the project.

Market Size and Dynamics

Cards in Issue

Based on ECB figures, there were 26.41 million payment cards at end-2024, composed of 11.19 million debit cards, 2.34 million delayed debit cards, and 1.08 million credit cards. The number of cards in Austria was equivalent to 1.59 cards per capita at end-2024 (2013: 1.31). In 2024, 100% of cards were contactless enabled.

Additionally, there were about 117,000 issued American Express cards in the market. Debit cards had a market share of 76.57% in 2024. Table 13 highlights the statistics of the Austrian-issued cards in circulation:

13 - Cards Issued in Austria
(000s)202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with a cash function14,996.814,155.315,179.115,501.815,591.015,990.70.58%13.49%2.56%
Cards with a payment function15,260.314,359.114,264.814,522.614,622.014,949.80.68%6.16%1.20%
- cards with a debit function11,566.810,711.110,858.411,126.311,196.311,422.80.63%10.53%2.02%
- of which so-called Bankomat cards (PSA)10,100.010,100.010,400.010,400.010,200.010,263.3-1.92%3.14%0.62%
- cards with a delayed debit function2,386.02,432.12,226.92,282.82,341.42,401.62.57%0.58%0.12%
- cards with a credit function1,307.61,215.91,179.61,113.51,084.31,125.4-2.62%-17.58%-3.79%
cards with e-money function1,726.81,795.32,052.23,989.811,792.334,853.7195.56%591.52%47.22%
Total16,949.616,155.916,318.518,513.726,415.649,803.542.68%70.64%11.28%
Payment cards per capita - Austria1.711.601.581.591.591.630.17%2.69%0.53%
Payment cards per capita - EU27 total1.651.721.851.811.811.860.00%15.80%2.98%
Source: ECB, OeNB, PSA.

Card Fraud

Card fraud is one of the most fascinating aspects of the payments industry, not least because it is relentless and mutating. EMV implementation and 3D-Secure, combined with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), have done much to reduce domestic losses from lost and stolen cards in Europe. However, the war against fraud losses and the changing face of fraud continues to be a threat for the payments industry, including Romania.

The global card fraud challenges are Card-Not-Present fraud (CNP), cross-border fraud and counterfeiting on non-EMV cards. CNP fraud accounted for 80% of the total value of card fraud losses in 2020. From 2017, a new payment fraud category are fraud losses on contactless card payments. International card fraud continues to be smaller in scale than domestic card abuse but is proportionately far more common. And of course, fraudulent cross-border transactions on cards continue to grow on all purchase channels.

Losses from card fraud on the internet and cross-border fraud on domestic cards have grown significantly. Following EMV implementation, card fraud has moved increasingly to countries where POS terminals or online shops have not yet been migrated to EMV and SCA, respectively, and to cross-border fraud with compromised cards.

The breakdown of card fraud losses by method of compromise already indicates the importance of distinguishing between domestic and cross-border fraud losses. The method of compromise covers the means by which fraudsters obtain payment cards or card details. Notable methods of compromise in a complex payment world are CNP fraud based on theft of card credentials and card lost and stolen fraud followed by growing ID fraud and by cross-counterfeit fraud.

The main method of compromise responsible for losses in many European countries is now the theft of card credentials. A high proportion of these card fraud losses are caused by the growth in e-commerce, and still the lack of use of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) methods such as 3D-Secure 2.0.

In a post data-breach world, identity information, payment credentials, account credentials and responses to security questions are widely available for purchase in bulk. Complete fraud exploits and zero-day attacks are also easily available on the black market for outright purchase or as a hosted / fully managed service.

In the digital payments world and having the changing face of fraud in mind, there are significant challenges for card issuing banks, payment service providers and their supporting processors.

In 2015, PSA and the Austrian banks introduced a geo-blocking function for payments on Maestro cards at foreign ATMs, POS terminals and for online payments abroad as a new anti-fraud measure.

Austria has low basis points in fraud. In 2015, fraud losses overall were just 17% higher than in 2008 and the rise in counterfeit fraud through 2012 showed a clear downward trend. Unfortunately, this success has been balanced out by the CNP fraud losses, which have crept up since 2006. ID Theft has always been nearly a quarter of the fraud losses for Austria.

Austria’s card fraud loss mix is aligned with European trends. Counterfeit fraud (17.1%) declined and CNP fraud continued to grow slightly. In 2022, CNP made up 39.3% of the total card fraud losses. Around 80% of the counterfeit was cross-border.

According to FICO, the international fraud prevention specialist, card fraud losses in Austria showed continued growth, since 2014. In 2022, the card fraud losses amounted to an estimated €7.8 million, up by 5.20% compared to 2021.

According to ECB figures for H1 2023, the value of card fraud as a share of transaction value in Austria was 0.021% (EU/EEA average: 0.031%) and 0.008% (EU/EEA average: 0.015%) by volume. A significant update on Fraud numbers across Europe is expected from the ECB in 2026.

14 - Card Fraud Losses on Austrian Cards
(in € Mio.)20182019202020212022GR 21/22GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Counterfeit cards1.51.51.41.41.3-4.90%-21.68%-4.77%
Card lost or stolen fraud1.00.91.00.90.9-3.93%-21.40%-4.70%
ID fraud2.02.22.32.32.510.00%40.56%7.05%
Card not present fraud2.22.42.52.83.19.24%52.93%8.87%
other losses0.00.00.00.00.0−−−
Value of card fraud losses6.76.97.27.47.85.20%17.95%3.36%
Counterfeit fraud in %22.4%21.7%19.4%18.9%17.1%-9.60%-33.60%-7.86%
CNP fraud in %32.8%34.8%34.7%37.8%39.3%3.84%29.66%5.33%
Source: FICO, Euromonitor International.

According to ECB figures published in October 2021, the value of fraud as a share of transaction value was 0.027% by value in Austria in 2019, and 0.012% by volume.

In 2019, acquirer fraud losses by channel were composed of ATM fraud: 6%, POS fraud: 19% and CNP fraud: 75%.

In 2019, issuer fraud losses by channel were composed of ATM fraud: 4%, POS fraud: 8% and CNP fraud: 88%.

In 2025, FICO’s European Fraud Map estimates that card fraud losses on Austrian-issued cards have reached “over €8 million”, the highest level recorded for Austria, yet the fraud rate remains just 0.6 basis points (0.006%) of transaction value—well below the EU/EEA average of roughly 0.031%.​

Between 2023 and 2024, Austria saw about a 3% year-on-year increase in card fraud losses, reflecting more sophisticated digital attacks even as legacy card-present fraud remains low.

As most POS card transactions are authorised online-to-issuer, acquirer fraud rates in Austria are under control except for offline vending machines, e-commerce and other hotspots. Obviously, EMV implementation has contributed significantly to declining fraud rates. Maestro cards cannot be used on the internet as 3D-Secure with Austrian Maestro cards was phased out at end-2010.

Credit card fraud prevention measures taken have been pushing 3D-Secure, updating banks’ fraud prevention systems and real-time-scoring, implementing more rule-based fraud control mechanisms. Also, issuers offer PIN selection at ATMs and SMS notification to inform cardholders about the use of their credit card. Some issuer banks are likely to offer geo-blocking, allowing cardholders to restrict the regional use of their card and their use on the internet.

Card Use

Card payments in Austria showed a compound annual growth rate of 13.84% per year from 2020 to 2024. It is noted that the fast-growing number of contactless card payments pushes the Austrian card use. Contactless payments have become nearly universal. According to OeNB, by end-2024, 95% of all debit-card transactions at point of sale in Austria were contactless.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen across all card usage metrics. According to the ECB, in 2024, there were 1,891.26 million card payments (+13.04%) with a total value of €81.04 billion (+11.05% from 2023). Card payments have grown significantly and are more than five-times higher than cash withdrawals by number. Payments on debit cards accounted for 84.15% of all card payments in 2024.

The ATV per card payment amounted to €42.85, down from €43.01 in 2020. In 2024, there were 357.68 million remote card payments (2023: 291.62 million) with the total value €22.14 billion (+19.79%).

The use of Austrian cards abroad accounted for 730.96 million payments (+20.14%) with the total value €38.07 billion (+16.71% vs 2023), accounting for 38.65% and 46.97% of the total card payments, respectively.

15 - Payments with Austrian Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with a payment function (m)15.0014.1615.1815.5015.5915.990.58%13.49%2.56%
Ø payments per card per year73.689.296.4107.9121.3134.712.39%68.44%10.99%
Total payments value per card per year€3,167.5€3,774.9€4,274.3€4,707.5€5,198.0€5,606.010.42%53.54%8.95%
Card payments (m)1,104.321,262.331,463.071,673.101,891.262,153.8413.04%91.17%13.84%
- thereof remote payments (m)161.14196.12236.32291.62357.68398.1922.65%164.13%21.44%
- thereof POS payments (m)943.171,066.211,226.751,381.491,533.591,755.6511.01%79.60%12.42%
- thereof cross-border payments (m)167.78207.84512.35608.40730.96972.1520.14%316.09%33.00%
- thereof on debit cards (m)885.591,029.091,213.491,397.361,591.591,844.1213.90%108.83%15.87%
- thereof on delayed debit cards (m)143.20153.92161.64183.97205.86218.1111.90%41.57%7.20%
- thereof on credit cards (m)75.5379.3285.3988.3889.9891.611.81%10.07%1.94%
Value of card payments (€bn)47.5053.4364.8872.9781.0489.6411.05%74.26%11.75%
- thereof remote payments value (€bn)8.9011.1215.1618.4822.1424.3319.79%163.24%21.36%
- thereof POS payments (€bn)38.6042.3149.7254.5058.9165.328.09%54.62%9.11%
- thereof cross-border payments (€bn)9.0111.4427.1632.6238.0743.3416.71%245.66%28.15%
- thereof on debit cards (€bn)32.6837.1945.0451.0957.5666.0512.68%98.81%14.73%
- thereof on delayed cards (€bn)9.8110.8012.3013.8815.3916.2310.89%37.89%6.64%
- thereof on credit cards (€bn)5.025.457.007.287.337.370.56%14.67%2.78%
ATV per card payment€43.01€42.33€44.35€43.62€42.85€41.62-1.76%-8.85%-1.84%
Source: ECB.

Card Use Per Capita

According to ECB, card payments per capita underline the rapid growth rates of card use in Austria:

The number of card payments per capita was equivalent to 205.6 at end-2024 (2009: 46.0) and showed a compound annual growth rate of 13.04% per year from 2020 to 2024. The use of debit cards grew to 173.4 payments per capita while the combined delayed debit/ credit card use accounted for 22.4 payments per capita.

16 - Card Payments Per Capita in Austria
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Debit card payments99.3114.9134.0153.0173.413.31%102.00%15.10%
Debit card value€3,664.5€4,152.4€4,975.2€5,595.1€6,272.112.10%92.31%13.97%
Delayed debit card payments16.117.217.920.122.411.32%36.94%6.49%
Delayed debit card value€1,099.8€1,206.2€1,358.4€1,520.4€1,677.310.32%33.38%5.93%
Credit card payments8.58.99.49.79.81.29%6.47%1.26%
Credit card value€562.9€608.3€773.5€797.8€798.10.05%10.92%2.09%
Total card payments123.8141.0161.3182.9205.612.46%84.54%13.04%
Total card value€5,327.2€5,966.9€7,107.1€7,913.2€8,747.510.54%66.98%10.80%
Source: ECB.

Debit Card Use

Historically, eurocheque cards dominated the debit card market, with a growing number issued with PIN for use in the domestic Bankomat ATM and Bankomat POS networks. Alongside euro cheque cards were plain Bankomat debit cards without the cheque guarantee function.

With the euro cheque heritage, Maestro as the domestic debit brand and Mastercard the largest charge/credit card brand, Mastercard brands have a dominant market share in Austria. Most Austrian banks issue debit cards for domestic and international POS payments, with more than 11.19 million cards by end-2024. According to an OeNB survey, more than 92% of Austrians over the age of 15 have a payment card and almost all payment cardholders are debit cardholders.

The use of Austrian debit cards for payments continued to grow, with a CAGR of 15.87% over the 2020-2024 period (down from 13% for 2003-2007) and continued to be faster than the rate of growth in ATM withdrawals. The number of debit card payments was more than the number of cash disbursements for the first time during 2002, though the value of cash disbursements remains much greater. Despite the rapid growth of debit card payments in Austria, cardholders rarely use their Maestro cards when travelling which is in line with many other European countries.

In 2024, there were 1,591.59 million debit card payments (+13.90%) with a total value of €57.56 billion (+12.68% from 2023). The ATV per debit card payment amounted to €36.17 on average, and there were 142.2 payments per debit card per year. The total card payments value per debit card accounted for €5,141.4.

17 - Payments with Austrian Debit Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Debit cards issued (m)11.5710.7110.8611.1311.2011.420.63%10.53%2.02%
Ø Payments per debit card per year76.696.1111.8125.6142.2161.413.19%88.93%13.57%
Number of debit payments (m)885.59 1,029.09 1,213.49 1,397.36 1,591.59 1,844.12 13.90%108.83%15.87%
Value of debit payments (€bn)32.6837.1945.0451.0957.5666.0512.68%98.81%14.73%
ATV per debit card payment€36.90€36.13€37.12€36.56€36.17€35.81-1.07%-4.80%-0.98%
Total debit card value per year€2,825.0€3,471.7€4,147.9€4,591.6€5,141.4€5,781.911.97%79.87%12.46%
Source: ECB, OeNB, PSA.

Delayed Debit Card Use

Set against the use of debit cards, delayed debit cards play a minor role. However, payments on delayed debit cards showed higher growth rates than payments on debit cards.

Though the credit/charge card sector has shown healthy growth over the past six years, penetration remains relatively low. According to an OeNB survey, 26% of the population over 15 held a credit card. Part of the growth in issuance since 2006 seems to have come from co-branded cards, particularly Austrian Airlines Miles & More cards, and some from Diners Club.

In 2024, there were 205.86 million delayed debit card payments (+11.90%) with the total value €15.39 billion (+10.89% from 2023). The ATV per delayed debit card payment was €74.78 and there were 87.9 payments per delayed debit card per year. The total card payments value per delayed debit card amounted to €6,574.5.

18 - Payments with Austrian Delayed Debit Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Delayed debit cards issued (m)2.392.432.232.282.342.402.57%0.58%0.12%
Ø Payments per dd card per year60.063.372.680.687.990.89.09%40.75%7.08%
Payments with delayed debit cards (m)143.20153.92161.64183.97205.86218.1111.90%41.57%7.20%
Value of delayed debit payments (€bn)9.8110.8012.3013.8815.3916.2310.89%37.89%6.64%
ATV per delayed debit payment€68.48€70.18€76.08€75.46€74.78€74.42-0.90%-2.60%-0.53%
Total delayed debit card value per year€4,110.0€4,441.3€5,522.3€6,081.2€6,574.5€6,758.78.11%37.10%6.51%
Source: ECB.

Credit Card Use

Payments with credit cards play a minor role. Further, payments on credit cards have showed lower growth rates than payments on debit cards. In 2024, there were 89.98 million credit card payments (+1.81%) with the total value of €7.33 billion (+0.56% from 2023). The ATV per credit card payment was €81.41, and there were 83.0 payments per credit card per year. The total card payments value per credit card amounted to just €6,755.8.

19 - Payments with Austrian Credit Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Credit cards issued (m)1.311.221.181.111.081.13-2.62%-17.58%-3.79%
Ø Payments per credit card per year57.865.272.479.483.081.44.55%33.55%5.96%
Payments with credit cards (m)75.5379.3285.3988.3889.9891.611.81%10.07%1.94%
Value of credit card payments (€bn)5.025.457.007.287.337.370.56%14.67%2.78%
ATV per credit card payment€66.46€68.68€82.00€82.42€81.41€80.41-1.23%4.18%0.82%
Total credit card value per year€3,838.7€4,480.7€5,936.2€6,541.8€6,755.8€6,545.53.27%39.13%6.83%
Source: ECB.

Domestic View on Credit Cards – OeNB, the Austrian central bank, produces slightly different combined figures for payments and cash withdrawals on cards with credit/delayed debit function. The figures cover bank-issued cards including American Express and Diners Club cards, but no private label cards issued by retailers or fleet cards from petrol companies.

Credit/delayed debit card use at ATMs were 3.00 million withdrawals (-7.86%) with the total withdrawals value €0.62 billion (-6.68% from 2023).

20 - Credit Card Transactions in Austria
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Credit/delayed debit cards (m)3.693.653.413.403.430.87%-5.89%-1.21%
- thereof with cash function2.422.503.363.363.360.00%39.42%6.87%
Number of payments (m)218.73233.24246.17271.54294.908.60%29.82%5.36%
Value of payments (€bn)14.8316.2519.1521.0322.577.36%28.60%5.16%
Ø Payments per credit card59.2863.9072.1979.9586.087.67%37.94%6.64%
ATV per credit card payment€67.78€69.67€77.80€77.43€76.54-1.15%-0.94%-0.19%
Number of withdrawals (m)3.323.023.263.263.00-7.86%-40.87%-9.98%
Value of withdrawals (€bn)0.670.620.660.660.62-6.68%-36.42%-8.66%
ATV per credit card withdrawal€202.54€204.07€202.89€202.89€205.501.29%7.54%1.46%
Note: credit cards are issued by Easycredit Bank, cardcomplete, American Express, DCBank, and Austrian banks.
Note: OeNB credit card figures differ slightly to ECB (see tables 18 and 19).
Source: OeNB.

E-Money Use

According to OeNB, the use of e-money accounts accessed through a card continued to be marginal. In 2024, there were 11.79 million e-money cards and 16.23 million e-money purchases with the total value €3.27 billion. The ATV per e-money purchase was €201.52.

21 - E-Money Use
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Number of e-money institutions44443-25.00%50.00%8.45%
Cards with e-money function1,726,7921,795,2892,052,1933,989,75211,792,269195.56%591.52%47.22%
Outstanding card values (€m)50.0051.0051.0051.0051.000.00%8.51%1.65%
E-Money terminals132,374136,784274,143336,411358,2316.49%176.13%22.52%
E-Money purchases (m)4.703.894.696.4516.23151.78%243.42%27.99%
E-Money purchases value (€bn)0.120.090.120.473.27589.36%2427.33%90.78%
ATV per e-money purchase€24.79€22.22€25.40€73.60€201.52173.79%635.93%49.06%
E-Money loading/unloading terminals9,0699,1658,9338,6558,609-0.53%-4.21%-0.86%
E-money card-loading/unloading transactions 2.92.01.91.91.8-5.45%-31.30%-7.23%
E-Money loading/unload value (€bn)0.120.110.110.100.10-6.35%-24.82%-5.55%
ATV per e-money loading/unloading€41.38€55.00€58.23€54.70€54.18-0.95%9.44%1.82%
Total E-money purchases per capita0.50.40.50.71.8150.49%232.18%27.14%
Total E-money purchases value per capita€13.1€9.6€13.2€52.0€356.4585.82%2344.64%89.51%
Note: from 2014, e-money statistics include only cards giving access to e-money stored on e-money accounts.
Source: ECB, OeNB.

Leading Card Issuers

AirPlus continued its corporate card and travel management business. It issues cards branded UATP and co-brands Mastercard cards and VISA cards.

Card Complete issues contactless credit cards branded Mastercard or VISA and prepaid cards, but no debit cards. It offers full issuer services for many Austrian banks. Card Complete claimed nearly 1.2 million issued credit cards serviced (2023), including few JCB cards and the Diners cards issued by DC Bank.

From 2005, Bank Austria, through Card Complete, had offered prepaid VISA Electron cards, one together with football club SK Rapid. However, all VISA Electron cards were phased-out.

DC Bank –In September 2015, Bank Austria sold its DC Bank to its majority subsidiary Card Complete Service Bank. DC Bank is the Diners Club card and Miles&More Mastercard credit card issuer, and the Diners Club and Discover acquirer in Austria at over 100,000 points of acceptance.

Erste Bank has promoted credit cards for several years, including the launch of revolving credit cards, but has given no recent update of any card figures. It is thought to have issued around 165,000 credit cards in Austria and 520,000 debit cards. In 2024, card brands issued were Debit Mastercard, Mastercard and VISA. All cards issued as contactless cards. Erste Bank said that its existing Maestro cards would be replaced by Debit Mastercard cards up to end-2020.

In June 2016, Erste Bank launched a range of contactless Austrian Maestro card form-factors followed by Debit Mastercard form-factors in 2019. Customers of Erste Bank and Sparkassen in Austria can make contactless payments using an NFC wristband, NFC sticker or the mobile HCE NFC app, George. All debit card form-factors can also be used to make cash withdrawals at NFC-enabled Erste Bank ATMs in Vienna.

Raiffeisen Bank International – Like Erste Bank, RBI has given no recent update but is thought to have issued over 500,000 credit cards in Austria (split about 60:40 between VISA and Mastercard), and more than 2.8 million Debit Mastercard cards. RBI issues Mastercard credit cards and VISA PRELOAD prepaid cards. RBI claims to be the most innovative issuer in the country. All cards are issued as contactless cards.

From January 2012, RBI piloted its ‘CardMobile’ payment service with a VISA payWave debit application stored on micro-SDs, embedded in iPhones using iCaisse technology. RBI stored a VISA debit application onto microSD cards that customers were able to insert into contactless iPhone sleeves. The application acted like a V PAY prepaid card. RBI was the first V PAY issuer in Austria. The pilot took place in the city of Linz. According to RBI, people have used CardMobile on average three times a week for purchases with an average value of €4.20.

In February 2015, Raiffeisen launched its mobile HCE NFC payment wallet for Maestro debit cards, ELBA Pay.

Bank Austria – UniCredit Group lumps Italy, Germany and Austria together for comment purposes in its retail banking overview. Bank Austria is thought to have issued about 2 million payment cards in Austria, including over 1.8 million Mastercard debit cards and about 500,000 charge and credit cards branded Mastercard, Diners Club or VISA. All Bank Austria cards are issued as contactless cards.

During 2021, Bank Austria launched the GoGreen sustainable and Austrian Eco-Label-certified account. The account is entirely digital and paper-free (including electronic account statements and automated account opening). Every customer receives a debit card that is made from an environmentally friendly material and sent to the customer using an FSC-certified and sustainably printed paper base. All GoGreen account holders also receive a reduction on the issue surcharge for selected ESG funds. In 2022, the GoGreen account became the most frequently chosen account model. The GoGreen account already accounted for 68% of all new business in 2022.

BAWAG P.S.K. issues contactless debit cards branded Debit Mastercard and contactless credit cards branded Mastercard.

Easybank – In March 2017, SIX Group (CH) sold its Austrian card issuing business, branded PayLife, together with its full issuer support for Austrian banks to Easybank (BAWAG P.S.K. Group). Easybank absorbed the card portfolio of PayLife, 1.5 million issued credit cards and 1 million prepaid cards and is now the largest prepaid card issuer in Austria. Easybank issues prepaid cards and credit cards branded Mastercard or VISA and several co-branded cards, including the ÖAMTC VISA/Mastercard cards and a WWF Mastercard card.

Appendix

Significant Events in Austrian Banking

June 2023

November 2021

 Sberbank sold its Austrian subsidiary to an Austrian company.

BAWAG acquires DEPFA Group
July 2021 BAWAG acquires Hello bank!
March 2017 SIX Group sold its Austrian card issuing business together with its full issuer support for Austrian banks to Easybank (BAWAG P.S.K. Group).
March 2017 Merger of Raiffeisenbank International with Raifeisen Zentralbank.
Source: Yearbooks research.

Electronic Purse Quick – Historic Background

Quick electronic purse was the low value payment mechanism of PayLife. PayLife continued to support Quick, although Quick payments by number and by value had declined since 2008, presumably due to bank prepaid card competition. Further, surveys by OeNB indicated that only about 21% of cardholders were aware that their card has the e-purse function.

Established applications for Quick were parking meters, ticket and cigarette vending machines, coin-operated laundry machines and copiers, as well as closed environments like businesses and university campuses. Quick had been running for 15 years: after a trial in Eisenstadt and launch in five cities in April 1996, the scheme was added to Maestro cards and introduced nationwide in October 1996.

In October 2012, PayLife launched a contactless Quick function. Since 2013, the contactless Quick function was added to renewed Maestro cards and to stand-alone Quick cards. In 2013, Paylife reported 115,000 contactless Quick cards and around 3 million contactless Maestro cards with Quick function.

In 2015, SIX disclosed plans to phase-out Quick, and Quick was phased-out by end-July 2017.

Digital & Card Payment Yearbooks