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Czechia 2026

Market Overview
Payment Organisation SBK Czech Bank Card Association (SBK/BCA).
Domestic Payment Brands No domestic payment brands.
Market Structure Continued growth of card use. By end-2024, there were 15.86 million cards with 273.5 card payments per capita.

Cards issued are credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards. 92.12% of cards are debit cards that are increasingly used. According to SBK/BCA, 91.87% of cards were contactless cards at end-2024.

The largest Czech banks are owned by European bank groups: ČSOB by KBC (B), Komerční Banka by Société Générale (F), Česká spořitelna by Erste Group (A), Société Générale and UniCredit Bank (I).

Three large banks dominate the market, with Česká spořitelna accounting for 25.53% of cards issued in 2024.

Reshaped Czech acquirer market: in 2016, acquiring joint ventures were established: REVO Payments (Raiffeisen/EVO Payments), Erste/Global Payments; KB SmartPay (Komercni Banka/Worldline).

Emerging Open Banking payment ecosystem.
Notable Market Trends Rollout: contactless cards, POS terminals, MPOS terminals,
HCE NFC payments, mobile payment apps, instant payments. Due to the lingering effect of the pandemic, there was a 22% increase in cross-border payments volume and a 20% rise in cross-border payments value.
Major Card Issuers Česká spořitelna, ČSOB, Komerční Banka, Raiffeisen Bank, UniCredit Bank CZ+SK.
Major Card Acquirers Global Payments, ČSOB, KB SmartPay, UniCredit Bank CZ+SK, REVO Payments, Fio Banka.
Major Card Processors Global Payments Europe, Nexi, Euronet, EVO Payments, Worldline.
Key Statistics 2024
Population 10.89 million, with 1.46 cards per capita.
Cards Debit: 14.56 million

Delayed debit: 3,400

Credit: 1.24 million

Total: 15.86 million
Card Payments Debit: 2,828.95 million; value CZK 1,669.71 billion (€66.5 billion)

Delayed debit: 0.07 million; value CZK 0.22 billion (€0.01 billion)

Credit: 151.07 million; value CZK 117.96 billion (€4.7 billion)

Total: 2,980.88 million; value CZK 1,791.20 billion (€71.3 billion)
POS Terminals 268,142
POS Payments All cards: 1,906.07 million; value CZK 1,017.92 billion (€40.5 billion)
ATMs 5,034
ATM Withdrawals All cards: 140.83 million; value CZK 869.87 billion (€34.6 billion)
Digital A2A Payments Credit Transfers: 1,394.7 million, value: CZK 155,798.1 billion

Direct Debits: 78.1 million, value: CZK 382.6 billion
Note: From end-2016, Czechia is the official name of the Czech Republic. In this document, both names are used.

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

Source: ECB, Ceska Narodna Banka (CNB), Czech Bank Card Association (BCA)

Introduction – Payments in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a unitary parliamentary republic, with a high-income export-orientated social market economy. The Czech Republic is a member of the European Union but is yet to adopt the euro currency.

Czech consumers are enthusiastic users of contactless payments, although cash on delivery remains the most popular method for e-commerce purchases, followed by cards. More recently, Czech banks have partnered to launch digital ID verification services, which can be used for ID purposes in the government sector too. In this respect, the Czech Republic has been quicker to adopt payment technology convergence in comparison to its western European neighbours

The adoption of the revised Payment Services Directive, PSD2, and disruptive technologies have set the stage for digital payments for the digital economy in the Czech Republic. 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, Czech consumers have embraced mobile devices such as tablets, smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT). This change significantly impacts their shopping experience. Consumers 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. Czech 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 the Czech Republic 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 the Czech Republic.

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 Czech merchants and are heavily used by Czech consumers.

This country profile provides an introduction into two competing payment ecosystems in the Czech Republic:

Legal Framework for Payment Services

The European legal framework for payment services is a joint initiative of the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) within the Eurosystem, and the European Payments Council (EPC). Its objective is to standardise payments across Europe, remove existing barriers, promote cross-border competition among payment service providers (PSPs), strengthen the European internal market, and accelerate the digital transformation of payments.

Based on this vision, the European Commission has established a unified and binding legal framework for cashless B2C and B2B payments, superseding prior national legislation. This framework applies to all financial institutions and PSPs operating within the EU. The Czech Republic has largely transposed these European provisions into national legislation governing payment services.

Historically, Czech payment systems operated under national regulations with strict technical and security standards. However, with the implementation of the Payment Services Directive (PSD), all payment services in the Czech Republic now fall under the harmonised EU framework effective across the European Economic Area (EEA). Domestic and international card scheme regulations (e.g. EMV, PCI DSS, RTS on SCA, and the SEPA Cards Framework) remain applicable to respective card payment providers.

Legal Framework relevant for Payment Services in the Czech Republic

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 the Czech Republic 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 demonstrated 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) has 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 will become available in 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.

The EU also confirmed in June 2021 that it is to introduce a European Digital Identity Wallet that will enable citizens to link their national digital identity with other personal attributes and will be recognised in all 27 EU member states.

eID platform initiative – In May 2017, a group of European companies including banks, vehicle manufacturers and technology providers signed a “corresponding declaration of intent” to establish a joint, pan-industry platform that will let their customers use a so-called “master key” for registration and identification when accessing online services across a range of sectors including government, aviation and retail.

During 2020, the CNB was involved in the preparation of a parliamentary proposal for a banking identity (BankID) for bank clients, through which they will be able to use electronic services provided by the state and the private sector. Related amendments, in particular an amendment to the Act on Banks and the Act on Certain Measures against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, took effect on 1 January 2021.

In 2020, KB established Bankovni identita, a joint venture with CS and CSOB for providing e-ID and signature services based upon the digital IDs of bank clients. ČSOB was one of the first banks in the Czech Republic to launch banking identity services with the option of logging in to State Administration Portals. Currently, clients via ČSOB Identity can, for example, verify the validity of their documents, look into the driver’s points system, pick up an e-recipe or create a data box.

became one of the earliest institutions to launch these banking identity (BankID) services, facilitating secure login to Czech State Administration Portals.

Under the ČSOB Identity scheme, clients can:

These initiatives have supported cross-sector digital identity use, strengthening secure access and interoperability within the Czech e-Government and private sector services landscape.

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

Ceska Narodna Banka (CNB) is the national central bank of the Czech Republic. The CNB’s Financial Market Supervision Department supervises the banking sector in the Czech Republic. The legal framework in which Czech financial institutions and companies operate is based on European Union directives and Czech banking laws.

In December 2016, after the new Consumer Credit Act took effect, the CNB gradually started supervising the entire consumer credit market, including non-bank companies, which are required under the new Act to obtain authorisation from the CNB to carry on business.

CNB notes that the Czech banking sector is in good condition. The structure of the banking sector in the Czech Republic has long been stable. This stability helped the country survive the credit crunch in better shape than most of the CEE region. The recovery of the domestic economy, which started in mid-2009, continued into 2010. The Czech economy slowed down in 2011 because of fiscal austerity and the recession continued in 2012 but had a modest impact on banks. GDP slowed further to 2.4% in 2019 and was projected to stay in the same range for 2020. However, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led to GDP declining by 5.6% in 2020. As of 2021, problems in global value chains and related shortages of components and materials weighed significantly on the Czech economy with limited production significantly hampering export performance. Despite these persisting problems, domestic economic activity started to recover gradually, with GDP growing by 3.3% in the year. In 2022, GDP grew by 2.4% according to Czech Statistical Office and this is driven by investment and increased inventories, while dampened by weak household consumption amid lower consumer confidence and the tighter financial situation of Czech households. The economy was expected to remain subdued in 2023 with the European Commission expecting a 0.2% growth rate in 2023. In 2023, the economy experienced a contraction of about 0.1% due to a decline in household consumption and weak external demand coupled with tight monetary policy stance. By 2024, the economy recovered moderately by 1%, driven by driven by increased household consumption and government expenditure.

Since January 1998, the CNB has applied an inflation targeting regime to keep inflation close to a declared target. Since 2010, the target has been set in the form of 2% year-on-year growth in the consumer price index with a tolerance band of ±1 percentage point. In response to the pandemic, the CNB cut interest rates, which led to inflation being above the upper boundary of the tolerance band for most of 2020. The average inflation rate in 2020 was 3.2%. In 2021, global prices of energy and non-energy commodities, metals, intermediate products, manufacturing components, and materials of all kinds began to rise rapidly, and during H2 2021, inflation accelerated at a rate unprecedented in the history of the independent Czech Republic and surpassed the level of 6% at the end of the year. The year-on-year increment in consumer prices over the year as a whole was 3.8% on average, the highest figure in over a decade. In 2022, Czechia reported the fifth-highest inflation rate in the EU at 14.8% which exceeds the EU average by 5.6 ppts. By 2023, Czechia’s inflation rate moderated slightly to 10.7%, but still representing the country’s second-highest annual inflation rate since the creation of the independent Czechia in 1993.

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 continue to be supervised by the CNB.)

Structure

According to the Czech National Bank, in 2024, there were 52 credit institutions, including 43 banks and foreign banks operating in the Czech Republic. There were also three non-EU based foreign banks – the Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and the Bank of Communications of China. Of these, 13 were majority Czech owned, including the two state-owned banks, Czech Export Bank and Czech-Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank (CMZRB), and 12 were majority foreign owned. In addition, there were 20 foreign-bank branches and 7 representative offices of foreign banks in the Czech Republic, in addition to five credit unions.

The banking market attracted interest from western banks as a result of the government’s aggressive privatisation policy. The Czech banking sector has among the highest levels of foreign ownership of any country in the world. In 2021, CNB noted that foreign investors directly or indirectly control more than 80% of the total bank assets and the state controlled 2.5%.

Historically, the main Czech banks were the national savings bank, Česká spořitelna (CS), Komerční Banka (KB), Investicni a Postovni Banka (IPB) and Československá obchodní banka (ČSOB). In order of size, today’s big four banks are ČSOB, CS, KB, and UniCredit, all are foreign-owned. In 2024, they amounted to 61.58% of the banking sector’s total assets.

Raiffeisen Bank (RBI Group), Moneta Money Bank, PPF Banka and J&T Banka are other important players. The CNB revoked the license of Russian-owned ERB Bank in October 2016. Poland’s largest state-controlled bank, PKO Bank Polski, launched a corporate branch in Prague in 2017.

During 2020, in the credit institutions sector, the CNB gave Moneta Money Bank consent to the merger of Moneta Money Bank with Wüstenrot Hypoteční Banka. České spořitelna was granted consent to the takeover of the Czech branch of Waldviertler Sparkasse Bank AG.

During 2021, the CNB approved the merger of Raiffeisenbank and Equa Bank, resulting in the latter ceasing to exist as of January 2022. As a result, the total assets of Raiffeisenbank rose by 9% and was reflected in the assessment of systemically important institutions in the domestic banking sector, whose share in the sector’s total assets stood at almost 80% at the end of 2021 and will increase further as a result of the transaction. The growth in concentration was also due to the closure of Sberbank CZ, when the CNB for the first time used bank resolution procedures based on the liquidation of a bank in normal insolvency proceedings under the Recovery and Resolution Act.

1 - Main Czech Banks (2024)
BankOwnershipAssets (CZK bn)Assets (€bn)Market share
Československá obchodní banka (CSOB)KBC Bank Group (B)1,920.576.518.3%
Česká spořitelna (CS)Erste Group (A)2,030.180.819.3%
Komerční banka (KB)Société Générale (F): 60.35%, Free Float: 39.65%1,536.061.114.6%
UniCredit Bank CZ+SKUniCredit Group (I)979.339.09.3%
Raiffeisen BankRaiffeisen Bank International (A)805.132.07.7%
Moneta Money BankInstitutional and individual investors495.019.74.7%
PPF BankaPPF Group (CZ): 92.96%, City of Prague: 6.73%350.714.03.3%
Fio BankaFio Holding (CZ)314.312.53.0%
J & T BankaJ&T Finance Group (SK)314.912.53.0%
Air BankPPF Investments (CZ)198.27.91.9%
Other banksvarious1,556.061.914.8%
Total bank assets10,500.0418.0100.0%
Note: figures are as at end-2022.
Note: Sberbank CZ was declared bankrupt and liquidated at end-April 2022
Source: Annual Reports of Czech banks, PCM research.

Československá obchodní banka (ČSOB) – is the largest Czech bank by total bank assets. KBC Group (B) has strengthened its position in the Czech Republic by organic growth and buying out minority partners, taking its holding in ČSOB up to 100%, and splitting off the Slovak arm of ČSOB in January 2008. As at end-2024, ČSOB Group had 198 branches and serviced 4.29 million clients in the Czech Republic. Due to the ongoing optimisation of its branch network and strengthening of the self-service platforms, ČSOB reported 2,000 PSB outlets of the Czech Post network available for customer use in 2024, of which 228 were specialised banking counters. The bank had a wide network of 1,036 ATMs in 2024, including 1,034 contactless, 370 enabling cash deposits and 1,023 customised for visually impaired clients.

KBC of Belgium acquired a majority shareholding in ČSOB after winning a government tender. It beat competition from The Czech Republic’s Deutsche Bank and HypoVereinsbank for a 65.6% stake with a $1.1 billion bid. In June 2000, ČSOB took over IPB, the country’s troubled third largest bank, after it had been taken into forced administration; following this, ČSOB now operates Postal Savings Bank (PSB, or Postovni sporitelna) as a second retail brand.

Česká spořitelna (CS) is the second-largest Czech bank by total assets. It had 337 branches and 4.63 million retail customers at end-2024. In February 2000, Erste Bank of Austria acquired an initial 52% stake in Česká spořitelna, since raised to 100%.

In 2024, the CS active client base totalled more than 2 million, meaning that every fifth Czech relied on CS’ services on a daily basis. CS claims to be the largest bank in the Czech Republic as measured by number of clients and ATM network, comprising 1,611 ATMs and POS terminals.

In December 2022, Česká spořitelna signed an agreement to purchase the credit portfolio of Sberbank CZ, whose banking licence was withdrawn by the Czech National Bank in 2022. The proceeds will be used to satisfy the creditors of the bank.

Komerční Banka (KB) is the third largest Czech bank by total bank assets. KB reported 204 branches and 791 ATMs servicing 1.72 million Czech clients at end-2024.

In June 2001, the Czech government agreed to sell a majority holding in Komerční Banka to Société Générale (F) after it outbid UniCredit. At end-2024, SocGen held 60.35% of Komerční’s Banka shares and other institutional investors and many Czech individuals for the balance.

In the first step of an initiative for sharing ATMs in Czech Republic, KB agreed with Moneta Money Bank on sharing the two banks’ ATM networks for clients in May 2022. From February 2023, UniCredit Bank and Air Bank also joined this co-operation. The joint network comprised in total 1,947 ATMs as of December 2023, making it the largest in the Czech Republic. KB has also agreed with the partner banks to share the deposit function of ATMs from 2024.

As founder of the alliance of banks operating a shared ATM network, KB implemented another unique innovation in 2024, which was the launch of functionality enabling deposits of Czech currency banknotes through a network of shared ATMs for clients of Komerční banka, Moneta Money Bank, and Air Bank. The clients of this alliance can now make cash deposits at almost 800 ATMs among nearly 2,000 shared ATMs under conditions set and guaranteed by the bank issuing their payment cards. From the start of deposit sharing in August 2024, more than 250,000 deposits were executed in the shared ATM network by the end of 2024 in a total volume of more than CZK 3 billion. UniCredit Bank, the latest member of the alliance, will join the sharing of deposits  in 2025, expanding the shared ATM network by 140 deposit ATMs.

UniCredit Bank Czech Republic is the fourth largest bank in the Czech Republic and the largest in Slovakia. As a distant fourth behind the big three banks, UniCredit is underweight in the Czech market in comparison with its often-dominant position in other CEE countries. In 2024, UniCredit Bank CZ+SK reported 104 branches in the Czech Republic and reported nearly 15 million customers worldwide.

In December 2013, the cross-border merger of the Czech and the Slovak UniCredit Banks became effective. In November 2007, UniCredit Bank Austria (A) merged its Czech banking interests, HVB Bank The Czech Republic and Zivnostenská banka, into UniCredit Bank, which began unified operations. Previously, HypoVereinsbank and Bank Austria merged their Czech subsidiary banks to form HVB Bank The Czech Republic in September 2001.

Other international retail banking operations in the Czech Republic include Raiffeisen Bank, Moneta Money Bank, ING Bank (NL), Sberbank CZ and mBank (PL).

Raiffeisen Bank – expanded its market presence in July 2006 with the purchase of the on-line bank eBanka from the Czech financial services group PPF. In September 2015, Raiffeisen Bank bought the Czech retail banking business of Citibank Europe. At end-2024, Raiffeisen reported more than 2 million Czech customers and 118 branches. In retail banking, it reported huge progress in service digitisation.

In 2021, Raiffeisenbank announced the signing of an agreement to purchase 100% of the shares of Equa Bank, negotiated exclusive cooperation with ING, and became a co-owner of the Czech company Akcenta. Raiffeisenbank continued to develop online services and introduced a number of new services, including account opening through online banking, the mobile app, or on the web with the subsequent use of courier services. In 2022, Raiffeisenbank successfully completed the integration of Equa Bank, based on intensive and demanding preparations during the year. The transfer of Equa clients in mid-November to the unified mobile and Internet banking went very smoothly.

MONETA Money Bank (MMB) – From May 2016, GE Money Bank operates in the Czech Republic under a new name, MONETA Money Bank. Owner GE Capital sold the bank to institutional investors. Former GE Money Bank has a significant presence in the Czech market. The bank had 26,625 investors from 47 countries according to its 2024 annual report. At end-2024, it reported 124 branches and 1.5 million clients served by 557 ATMs.

MONETA and Komerční banka (“KB”) signed an agreement to share their ATM networks across the Czech Republic starting from June 2022. In 2024. As of December 2024, the Bank operated a network of 557 own ATMs with a further 1,409 ATMs available on a no-cost basis via an alliance with three other banks. MONETA and two of its partner banks introduced a deposit taking function, with the fourth partner committed to doing likewise in early 2025. By December 2025, 795 or 40% of the 1,966 ATMs in the alliance offer the deposit sharing function. In December 2022 UniCredit Bank and Air Bank announced that starting from February 2023 they will join the shared ATM network. The shared ATM network was initiated by MONETA and Komerční Banka in May 2022. The shared ATM network will have 2,048 ATMs, 37% of all ATMs available in the Czech Republic. From February 2023, the shared ATM network will grow with the addition of UniCredit Bank’s 264 ATMs and Air Bank’s 371 ATMs. Overall, MONETA’s clients will benefit from a network of 2,048 ATMs.

In October 2018, MMB announced plans to acquire the Czech and Slovak business of consumer finance house Home Credit and its digital challenger bank Air Bank for €767 million, creating a new business serving 2 million customers. The new business would have maintained the Air Bank brand and served a customer base combining the 1 million MONETA customers with 637,000 Air Bank customers and 469,000 belonging to Home Credit. Its 237 branches would have given it the third-most extensive branch network in the Czech Republic, supplemented by 1,005 ATMs. According to Air Bank, partnerships with national retailers would enlarge distribution by an additional 2,961 retail outlets. However, in February 2019, Home credit declined the transaction. The reason was a requirement of MONETA Money Bank to decrease the purchase price.

In November 2019, MONETA announced plans to acquire the Czech building savings and mortgage business from The Czech Republic’s Wuestenrot & Wuerttembergische. MONETA said the deal would give it 400,000 new customers and raise retail deposits by 45%.

As of 2024, MONETA served 1.5 million retail (+0.9% from 2023) and 145,000 commercial customers (+6.8% from 2023), driven by continued growth in the small business segment. At the same time, the commercial segment’s primary banking base grew by 6,000 clients or 6.7% YoY. As of December 2024, MONETA served 1.6 million retail and commercial clients, up 1.4% from 2023, with deposit products continuing to be the main attraction for new clients. MONETA’s client base represents approximately 15% of the Czech population.

During H2 2020, MONETA made available basic servicing of all acquired products through its digital channels, seeking to enhance cross-selling of daily banking services into the acquired client base. Online current account openings were optimised to improve KYC and AML processes.

During 2021, MONETA’s shareholders approved its strategic acquisition of Air Bank Group from PPF Group for a total consideration of CZK 25.9 billion, which would place MONETA among the country’s 3 largest banks by number of clients and position it as the market leader in consumer lending. However, in May 2022, MONETA and PPF terminated the deal due to higher capital requirements, a worsening macroeconomic environment, negative development of capital markets, and overall geopolitical events which affected the planned merger.

Sberbank CZ – As of November 2012, the Austrian Volksbank International (VBI) and previously the Eastern Europe banking subsidiary of Volksbank AG (OeVAG) became Sberbank Europe AG. It manages a network of nine universal banks in eight CEE countries: Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and the Ukraine (see Austria and Russia profiles). In February 2013, Volksbank CZ was rebranded as Sberbank CZ. In 2020, Sberbank CZ reported 24 branches servicing 110,706 customers.

During 2020, the number of clients actively using mobile banking more than doubled. The new Sberbank Online and Sberbank Online Mobile interfaces provided clients with intuitive user interfaces and also secure log-in using biometrics.

In February 2022 the CNB launched steps to revoke the licence of Sberbank CZ as a result of a deterioration of the bank’s liquidity situation, following a major outflow of deposits after the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and Russia’s attack on Ukraine. In April 2022, CNB revoked Sberbank CZ’s licence, resulting in Sberbank CZ entering liquidation. In December 2022, Česká spořitelna signed an agreement to purchase the credit portfolio of Sberbank CZ, whose banking licence was withdrawn by the Czech National Bank in 2022. The proceeds will be used to satisfy the creditors of the bank.

Fio Banka – Although Fio Banka specialises in investment banking, in 2024 Fio Banka had more than 1.55 million clients, from 1.4 million in 2023. The trend of opening accounts online continued, with the number of accounts opened in this manner increasing year-on-year by more than 40%. Clients were allowed to open accounts via the bank’s mobile app, a service which was used by approximately half of online clients.

J&T Banka is owned by J&T Group which focuses on providing comprehensive services related to private banking, asset management for private clients and institutions, investment banking, and project financing. It is developing its services, particularly in the markets of the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, and the Russian Federation. In April 2013, the Slovak Antimonopoly Office approved the purchase of Poštová Banka (SK) by J&T Group. Thus, J&T Group acquired an 88.055% share in the registered capital and voting rights of Poštová banka (see Slovakia profile).

Despite its exit from deposit-taking, PPF remains a market leader in consumer finance in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and has expanded into Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. ABN Amro’s Czech operations are now owned by Royal Bank of Scotland and are focused on corporate business.

ZUNO Bank claimed to be one of the first direct bank operation in the CEE countries. ZUNO was launched by Raiffeisen RBI in Slovakia in December 2010 and in the Czech Republic in mid-2011. According to RBI, in the first six months of operation ZUNO exceeded expectations attracting 18,000 customers who deposited more than €125 million with the bank.

At end-2014, ZUNO serviced more than 250,000 clients in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic. In 2013, ZUNO fully introduced a mobile banking application for iOS and Android with many handy and competitive features such as invoice scanner or augmented reality built within the ATM locator. Since the beginning, ZUNO has been very active on social media such us Facebook, Twitter or online blogs. By end-2013, 17,000 fans (SK) and 10,000 fans (CZ) made a difference on both markets within the banking sector.

In September 2015, Raiffeisen Bank International (A) sold ZUNO Bank (CZ) to Alfa Group (RUS). However, in June 2017, Raiffeisen Bank CZ absorbed ZUNO Bank.

Digital Challenger Banks 

A number of digital challenger banks have entered the Czech Republic, e.g. N26, Revolut and Wise. They already have a clear Open Banking strategy in place.

In parallel, many Czech 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.

Digital Banking 

All Czech retail banks offer online banking services and mobile banking apps to their clients. Services available include balance and transaction reporting and payment initiation. Services available include balance and transaction reporting and payment initiation. In addition, the Czech banks offer mobile banking apps combined with online bank payment services (e. g. eKonto, mobilni banka, Payment24). In 2024, 84% of all Czech people were internet banking users, and more than 70% of mobile phone users conducted online e-commerce transactions.

There is no bank-independent electronic banking standard in the Czech Republic. However, many banks offer the MultiCash and Gemini packages alongside their own proprietary systems for corporate banking purposes.

Mobile banking apps with added mobile money transfer services include PayPal.

Česká spořitelna (CS) – In 2015, Erste Bank launched its new digital banking platform and mobile banking app, George. In June 2018, CS launched voice biometrics technology enabling customers to identify themselves to call centre staff simply by speaking, as well as a new mobile banking app under the George brand. From May 2019, the Mobile Pay function of George supported mobile HCE NFC payments on cards.

The mobile app George is potentially available to all 16 million Erste Group clients. George was used by more than 2.4 million clients in the Czech Republic in 2024. The average George mobile banking client logged into the application 32 times a month. The number of transactions entered on mobiles (20.7 million) increased by 27% year-on-year, and the volume of payment transactions (CZK 161.7 billion) was up by 35%. CS claimed that George had become the most broadly used banking app on the market in 2023. About 2,923,731 unique users had already visited George at least once, and around 2,442,931 million clients were active in George (either mobile or web) in 2024.

The growing trend of servicing products directly in George saw its share in the total number of servicing operations increasing by 20% compared to 2020, mainly due to the availability of the services in the George mobile app, and accounts for nearly half of operations.

The George Key application is the main security method of CS´s Banking Identity, enabling more secure and convenient logging in and sending of payments, as well as authentication during a phone call with a banker. The application started 2022 with 1.55 million users, and by the end of the year, it had been used by 1.98 million clients, with growth of 427,000 clients during the year. The George Key app has thus become a main standard for internet banking and electronic payments security – the application is used by 80% of BankID users. The acceleration in the use of the George Key application is due to the gradual requirement for greater security of online card payments and George mobile banking, which can now be used only with the George Key application.

In 2022, the George Key became the standard for confirming card payments online, and, for the year as a whole, more than 85% of online card payments were verified by the George Key (nearly 54 million payments). Česká spořitelna was the first bank to start verifying the activation of Apple Pay and Google Pay with the George Key, thus dramatically reducing payment card abuse. In 2023, the George Key application was merged with the George application to make usage easier for clients to make it easier for clients to log in and send payments. By the end of the year, 1.9 million clients had been transferred from George Key to George. The remaining clients will be transferred in Q1 2024, when the George key application will be discontinued.

A significant innovation in the George in 2023 is the FIT Zone, which concentrates advice solutions and scenarios leading to improved financial health for clients. After a pilot, it was launched to more than 1.6 million clients at the end of November, and one in two accessed it and explored its contents. Of these, 250,000 clients then took advice specifically through the advice scenarios. By 2024, the bank reported that nearly 1.4 million unique customers had already accessed and explored FIT Zone’s content.

In 2021, CS completed and launched the BankID project, which enables the use of CS’s Banking Identity for the verification of identity in the digital environments of e-government and private companies. In 2022, Česká spořitelna carried on in its successful BankID service that makes it possible to use Česká spořitelna’s Banking Identity for the verification of identity in the digital environment of e-government and of private companies. CS provided the service to more than 2.8 million clients in 2024 and is thus making a major contribution to the digitalisation of the Czech economy, which ranks 15th in Europe in terms of digitalisation, placing it in the lower average. Since the launch of the service in January 2021, more than 970,000 CS´s clients have used the BankID service for e-government logins and have made more than 14 million logins by end-2024. CS was thus the number one provider of e-government logins. Aside from identity verification, the BankID service also offers digital signatures for electronic documents. Since June 2021, 750,000 CS clients have used the identity verification services as of end-2024.

The total number of instant payments sent from CS increased again in 2022, and compared to 2021, clients sent 16% more instant payments, amounting to a total of nearly 58 million transactions.

Komerční Banka – KB’s main channels are Mojebanka online banking, and Mobilní banka mobile banking. The bank has also launched biometric recognition systems such as wearables, Face ID, and Touch ID. At the end of 2018, KB launched an Open Banking initiative to allow clients to access their funds through other bank’s branches using their mobile app as digital ID.

In 2020, KB established Bankovni identita, a joint venture with Česká spořitelna and ČSOB for providing electronic identification and electronic signature services based upon the digital identities of bank clients. In co-operation with Direct Fidoo, KB offered its corporate clients a modern application for digitising the processing and billing of all corporate outlays, including Fidoo prepaid cards to simplify accounting for cash advances, card payments, and travel orders.

KB further extended partnerships with FinTech providers of value-added services via its fully owned KB Smart Solutions platform. In October 2020, KB acquired an 11% stake in the Czech start-up company MonkeyData, which, via its subsidiary Lemonero, has launched a digital platform employing big data and artificial intelligence to provide funding for small and medium-sized e-shops.

ESSOX launched a new ES-KL.Č (ES-KEY) app for clients using its payment cards to protect and verify 3D Secure payments on the internet. ES-KL.Č offers clients the possibility to verify payments via biometric data directly in the app on a mobile phone or by entering a 4-digit selected security PIN code. Each user sets the code in the app.

KB introduced ‘New Digital Bank (NDB)’ – a programme for building a new banking infrastructure and complete overhaul of banking processes. It was started in 2020 as a part of the KB2025 transformation strategy. In April 2023, KB introduced new KB+ banking applications for clients, all based on new banking and analytical infrastructure. The bank started onboarding new individual retail banking customers into the new KB+ app environment built on the NDB infrastructure as well as gradually migrating customers from the existing offering. At the end of 2023, 121,000 customers were being served in the New Era. Almost half of new clients used the fully digital route to enter the New Era. Throughout 2024, Komerční banka continued the migration of clients to the KB+ new digital bank, which also resulted in a substantial increase in the number of transactions. In 2024, a total of 48 million payments were processed in the new digital bank in a total volume of CZK 375 billion. By the end of 2024, the New Digital Bank of KB with the KB+ app was used by 1,028,000 individuals and entrepreneurs.

In non-cash payment operations, during the Q2 2023, KB gradually started processing domestic interbank payments in the form of instant payments, where all payments due on the date of entry are processed by default as instant payments. This significantly expanded and stabilised the share of instant payments in the total number of domestic outgoing interbank payments – via mobile banking (Mobilní banka) to 80% and via internet banking (MojeBanka) to 50%. Meanwhile, the share of incoming instant payments in the total of domestic incoming interbank payments grew by 4 percentage points to 27.6%. The Bank observed a significant year-on-year increase in both domestic and foreign payment transactions in 2024. Domestic payments grew by 5.3% (3.3% in outgoing payments and 7.3% in incoming payments). Foreign SEPA payments, which accounted for 88% of the total number of foreign payments in 2024, returned to a growth trajectory of 5% after a previous slight decline. Other foreign payments increased by 4.1% year on year.

In 2024, the trend of overall growth in the number and volume of card transactions continued. The number of transactions increased by 10% year on year and the volume by 9%. KB recorded larger gains in internet transactions, by 19% in number and 21% in volume. Transactions at brick-and-mortar establishments grew by 9% in number and almost 4% in volume. Almost all these transactions were made in a contactless manner and the share of payments made by smartphones and watches increased to 47% (2023: 39%). Apple Pay still has the largest share of these payments, at 53%, while Google Pay’s share is 43%.

From 2021, Komerční banka enabled clients to use the “Pay me” function, generating a QR code that simplifies the initiation of an immediate payment order by downloading it onto a mobile phone, where the order is filled out.

ČSOB – During 2019, ČSOB introduced Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Garmin Pay that integrate payment cards into smartphones or other electronic devices and enable contactless payments. The bank also added instant payments which allow the transfer of money from one account to an account in another bank within seconds.

As of December 2024, the number of ČSOB digital clients increased by 5% from 2023 to 1.76 million customers, while the number of mobile clients rose by 12% from 2023 to 1.45 million customers. The number of transactions entered via mobile banking increased by 39% from 2022 to 56.62 million, while the number of transactions via internet banking declined 10.9% from 2022 to 26.27 million in 2023.

In 2021, it launched the single ČSOB Smart mobile app for clients of ČSOB and Poštovní spořitelna, in tandem with the ČSOB Identity service. ČSOB Smart replaced ČSOB Smartbanking. Smart is linked to ČSOB Identity and as of 2023, Smart was used by 1.3 million clients. The app features the bank’s virtual assistant Kate. In 2024, more than 1 million unique users interacted with the Bank’s personalised virtual assistant, Kate and Kate helped with more than 7 million tasks such as payments, account information, loans, or insurance. The number of cases resolved fully autonomously by Kate also continues to grow – this stood at roughly 71% at year-end 2024, compared to 66% at year-end 2023. According to ČSOB, it was one of the first banks to enable clients to use their banking identity to access the online services of public institutions and companies, including signing with a guaranteed signature for the business sector. The bank identity service was used by 100,000 ČSOB clients in 2020.

Mobile application ČSOB Drobné is used by more than 160,000 clients. ČSOB Drobné is a spare change investing service offering customers the option to round up their transactions and put the difference into ČSOB Bohatství mutual fund which is the second largest fund on the Czech market after ČSOB Premiéra.

ČSOB’s fully digital AI-driven customer service assistant Kate was launched in 2020 and further developed in 2021. As of the end of 2022, Kate was able to resolve particular rejected card transactions, recommend setting up an automatic credit card repayment, give tips about discounts at gas stations, keep the validity of clients ID in check, and more. At the end of December 2022, Kate answered questions related to more than 600 topics, helped more nearly 340,000 active clients, and is now able to work with full text, for example to search for payment transactions by name.

The DoKapsy app offers all payment and loyalty cards in a single app, Find&pay for parking spots, discounts, and special offers. In 2022, DoKapsy app reached a milestone of 100,000 users. Parking service expanded to more than 50 locations throughout the Czech Republic, and users could pay for public transport in five Czech cities.

In April 2022, ČSOB became the sole owner of Fintech company Mallpay, which was afterward renamed to Skip Pay. In 2023, the bank launched a new video chat service that allows customers to connect with their banker from anywhere using MS Teams.

ČSOB extended the banking identity service and launched the identity services for the private sector in June 2021 under the BankID brand. During 2021, it completed the client migration to ČSOB Identity with a total of 1.6 million retail clients. Moreover, with the new BankID SIGN service, it was possible to sign contractual documentation with more than 70 private companies participating in BankID.

MONETA Money Bank (MMB) – Moneta’s Smart Banka mobile app and Internet Banka service offer a full range of bank account and transaction services. In 2021, Moneta’s Smart Banka app was used by more than 60% of its retail clients for all of their money transfers. The platform had 834,000 registered users, up 47.9% from 2021. The number of contactless payments with smartphones or smart watches increased by 21% year-on-year. Moneta’s digital channels accounted for significant shares in the origination of new volumes for consumer and small business lending in 2021, at 39.3% and 24.9% respectively. Online banking onboarded 19.8% of the bank’s current accounts during 2021. In 2024, 33% of all newly signed mortgage volumes and 61% of total newly opened retail deposit products were originated online. 50% of all new deposit units were raised through the bank’s digital channels. In 2024, digital channels accounted for a combined 1.5 million registered users in 2024, an increase of 7.3% year-on-year, and an average of 684,000 client visits per day. In the SME lending process, MONETA introduced the possibility to digitally sign contracts using BankID in a fully integrated solution in 2023, and in 2024 MONETA automated digitally signed documentation processing, further increasing effectivity of the process

Although mobile is becoming the most preferred channel, in 2022, Moneta saw a continued increase in client usage of internet banking with 1.24 million clients enrolled in 2022, up 13.8% year-on-year.

Moneta was one of the first banks in the Czech Republic to launch Apple Pay and Google Pay.

UniCredit Bank – In 2024, UniCredit reported that the penetration of active users of the bank’s digital services accounted for 86% (2023: 85%) of all active clients. In September 2021, UniCredit launched its multi-channel OPEN platform for account opening purposes. Owing to this platform, clients may choose the channel to take out the product that suits them best. At the beginning of 2022, UniCredit added more products and options to the OPEN digital platform in the area of accounts and consumer credit. The platform saved 4 million sheets of paper by 2023 and tens of thousands of hours of work as clients began to purchase products digitally themselves on the website, in online banking, or in the mobile app. At the end of 2023, the share of these sales exceeded 30%.

Raiffeisenbank – During 2021, Raiffeisenbank mobile banking enabled customers to access and manage all products and services completely online, including the security authentication service RB Key. Raiffeisenbank reported that the number of active mobile banking users crossed the 1 million threshold in 2023. By 2024, the number of active users of mobile banking exceeded 1.2 million users. This growth was due to both the strong acquisition of new clients during 2022 due to organic growth and the surge of clients from Ukraine in March 2022.

Raiffeisenbank also introduced Bank ID services, allowing private individuals to connect to e-government and public authority services.

The bank has a strong base of internet banking users since its merger with eBanka, one of the pioneers of electronic banking in the Czech Republic. In mobile banking, NFC payments or mobile phone withdrawals from ATMs were actively and regularly used by nearly one-fifth of all clients, with more than 175,000 cards digitalised so far. In addition, Raiffeisen Bank offers all types of contactless payments using mobile telephones and smartwatches. Google Pay is now available for Android smartphones, Garmin Pay and Fitbit Pay can be used to make payments using smartwatches and fitness trackers.

In 2022, Raiffeisen Bank got connected to Bankovní identita a.s. services as a digital identity provider for private law entities and utilising the services of Bankovní identita a.s. in the processes of the digital onboarding of new clients at the bank. In the area of NFC payments, a new version of the RaiPay payment wallet was launched, which now includes, for example, an overview of digital cards stored at online merchants with the option of actively managing these cards.

In 2023, Raiffeisenbank strengthened its digital platform for existing and new clients. As a result, 119,000 new clients were acquired digitally from the segment of private individuals. Half of all new clients start with Raiffeisenbank digitally as of 2024. In 2024, the bank made it possible for legal entities to open current accounts fully online and continued to improve its existing digital acquisition processes.

Fio Banka – In January 2020, Fio Banka launched the instant payment “send” option, enabling customers to make instant payments 24/7. It also released the first upgrade of the second generation of its mobile app. The main new features were the option to confirm card payments on the internet and Internet banking orders in the mobile app, and the application feature that allows users to receive notifications on account transactions or account balance via push notifications. It also launched Garmin Pay and Fitbit Pay services, including ATM cash withdrawals through smartwatches.

In November 2020, together with Air Bank and Moneta Money Bank, Fio Banka announced the establishment of a joint platform for providing a bank identity in the Czech Republic. This platform is also available to all other domestic banks. The platform provides bank clients with a universal digital key, i.e. identity, to be able to access a wide range of services and accounts in both the public and private spheres.

During 2022, the Fio Smartbanking mobile banking app users grew by a third. The majority of them use the app on a regular basis, including for the simple authorisation of transactions.

During the year, Fio Banka introduced security tools for payment cards. The bank stated that in 2022, it would make bank identity (Bank ID) available to Czech clients as an instrument for the electronic identification of citizens. It is also working with the Czech Banking Association on a new payment service that will allow sending money without knowing the bank account number to the recipient’s mobile phone.

As part of its FinTech initiatives, in January and September 2021 the CNB organised two roundtables for financial market participants and those interested in introducing innovative technologies in the area of financial products and services. The first-round table focused on the development of innovation in the payment system, while the second dealt with the licensing of innovative payment service providers in the Czech Republic.

In 2021, an amendment to the Payment System Act ensured that Czech law was adapted to the amendment of an EU regulation on cross-border payments in the EU. It introduced dynamic currency conversion service providers as a new category of financial market entity. The amendment is expected to be approved and take effect in 2022.

By the end of 2022, Czech banks and the CNB will implement the Mobile Payment Project, which will make it easier for clients to enter payments using the beneficiary’s mobile phone number instead of having to know the beneficiary’s account number directly. This project was expected to go live by October 2023.

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).

KB was the first part of SG Group to launch its public API portal as a banking product and service. This KB API portal serves as a gateway for all partners of the whole SG Group. In 2021, KB launched a new generation of its Open Banking platform, which makes KB’s and its partners’ products available in the ‘Bank-as-a-Platform’ and ‘Bank-as-a-Service’ modes. In November 2021, KB introduced the BankID Sign service for the guaranteed signing of documents using banking identity. In the area of payments and Open Banking, KB continued in 2021 to further develop the platform under the EU PSD2 and to prepare other Open Banking API payment services, specifically Batch Payment Initiation Service via API, which was launched as a non-public pilot.

In 2024, KB provided PSD2 services through a total of 49 licensed entities, of which 33 were payment institutions (FinTech companies) and 16 banks. In 2024, KB processed more than 109.5 million requests sent via the PSD2 API interface from KB’s client payment accounts and it processed payments with a total value exceeding CZK 5.1 billion (+777% vs 2023).

During 2020, Raiffeisen Bank enabled clients to exchange and digitally sign a number of documents with the bank. Also, customers of accounts with another bank could link the account to their internet banking at Raiffeisen Bank to get a better view of their other accounts. With tools made available under the PSD2 directive, the bank allows for displaying balances, transaction history or details of an account held with another

In compliance with the PSD2 directive, Raiffeisen Bank offers a custom application that also enables online payment confirmations using fingerprints or Face ID. With improved 3D Secure, clients can authenticate their online payments using fingerprints or Face ID without the need to retype codes from mobile text messages. The service is automatically activated for all Raiffeisen Bank cards and protects them against abuse and fraud.

As of 2024, there were 10 Open Banking and account providers, six third-party providers, 46 bank APIs, 19 API aggregators, four AISPs, and four PISPs operating in the Czech Republic.

Payment Services

In the Czech Republic, the law on payment services adopted the EU payment services directive (PSD) and the EU interchange fee regulation (IFR). The Czech Republic has also 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 the Czech Republic. All Czech retail banks issue debit cards branded Debit Mastercard, VISA Debit and prepaid cards. The majority of credit cards are VISA and Mastercard cards.

According to BCA, the EMV migration of cards is complete since end-2013. From July 2023, banks and other card issuers will no longer issue Maestro cards. Instead, they will need to issue Debit Mastercard. 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.

Czech card products like consumer cards, commercial cards and purchasing cards range from classic cards to gold cards and to 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, card accounts in EUR or USD denomination, individual picture cards, and collector cards are issued on demand.

Debit cards issued are VISA Debit and Debit Mastercard cards. There are no V PAY cards in issue.

By 2024, over 2.45 billion debit card transactions were processed in Czechia—a dramatic increase since 2013, with usage surpassing a billion annual transactions for the first time in 2019.​

As of 2023, data from the Czech National Bank shows over 86% of people aged 15–74 had used a debit or credit card for online purchases at least once, up significantly from just a few years earlier.​

Contactless debit card payments now make up more than 60% of all point-of-sale transactions under CZK 1,500, reflecting widespread adoption of modern NFC technology for everyday use.​

Issuing Banks and Brands

Leading Czech banks—such as Komerční banka, Česká spořitelna, ČSOB, MONETA Money Bank, Air Bank, Raiffeisenbank, and UniCredit Bank—issue debit cards, typically under Visa or Mastercard schemes.​

Digital challenger banks (e.g., Revolut, N26, Wise) also offer debit cards to Czech residents, enhancing cross-border and digital payment options.

Credit Cards issued are cards branded VISA, Mastercard, or Diners. Since 2008, American Express cards are no longer issued in the country but are issued from the UK in EUR or USD denomination There are no JCB cards in issue.

In H2 2024, there were approximately 1.2 million credit cards issued by Czech banks, compared to about 14.6 million debit cards.​

Contactless payments have seen rapid adoption: contactless card usage accounts for more than 60% of all point-of-sale transactions under CZK 1,500, and both credit and debit cards are frequently used for online and in-store purchases.​

Visa and Mastercard credit cards are the most commonly accepted brands at shops, restaurants, hotels, and service providers throughout the country, including Prague and other major cities.​

The main domestic credit card issuers are Česká spořitelna, ČSOB, Komerční Banka, Raiffeisen Bank, and UniCredit Bank CZ+SK, providing cards with extensive features, rewards, and integration into digital wallets.​

Usage patterns indicate credit cards are favoured for higher-value purchases and international transactions, while debit cards dominate everyday spending and local e-commerce

Prepaid Cards – All Czech retail banks issue prepaid cards.

Co-branded cards – In the Czech Republic, several co-branded card products are in circulation. Co-branded cards are based on the international card brands Mastercard and VISA.

Czech banks issuing co-branded cards together with their non-bank partners include Česká spořitelna, Komercni Banka, Moneta Money Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Diners Club CZ and others. Czech banks also issue private label store cards on behalf of retailers, petrol companies and other non-banks.

Co-brand partners include mostly retailers, mobile network operators like O2, Czech Airlines, Benzina and SHELL.

Contactless Cards and form-factors

In October 2011, Česká spořitelna (CS) initiated the era of contactless cards and terminals in the Czech Republic. According to CS, it had issued then more than 1 million contactless cards by end-2013 and clients had performed more than 81 million contactless transactions to a value of CZK 39 billion.

KB issues a contactless Mastercard card with PayPass function and a VISA prepaid MicroSD card with payWave function. From 2012, all leading Czech banks issued cards with added contactless functions.

Citibank issues contactless VISA and Mastercard cards. In 2013, Citibank started issuing, automatically and free of charge, contactless payments stickers with a range of credit cards. Customers are able to attach the stickers to objects such as mobile phones and tap them against point-of-sale terminals to carry out low-value payments.

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

By 2021, 98% of Czech consumers had a contactless payment card, and 96% of the Czech population had used contactless payment, compared to 90% across Europe as a whole. Czech consumers made contactless transactions for a total value of CZK 1.38 trillion in 2022. Around 82% of Czech consumers make contactless payments at least once a week.

NFC Stickers – Also, leading Czech banks issue contactless NFC stickers. They provide clients with Mastercard or VISA-branded contactless stickers that can be attached to the back of mobile phones and can be used to make payments at contactless POS terminals in the Czech Republic.

Predefined contactless limits – Contactless payments of purchase amounts below a predefined limit are without PIN or signature and without transaction receipt. In the Czech Republic, the contactless limit for payments without PIN/signature is set at CZK 500 for cards with PayPass or payWave function. Larger transactions are accepted, provided a PIN code is entered.

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 the Czech Republic, respectively. The effective rates of Mastercard and VISA can be found on the respective Mastercard and VISA websites.

In the Czech Republic, domestic Merchant Interchange Fee (DMIF) rates for Czech cards is defined by Mastercard and VISA, respectively. The interchange fee regulation 2015/751/EU applies for the Czech card business.

The interchange fees for domestic card-based payment transactions on consumer cards are capped as follows:

Credit card payments capped at 0.30% 

In the Czech Republic, credit card interchange fees are regulated and capped in accordance with EU regulations.

As of 9 December 2015, the EU Regulation (EU) 2015/751 sets caps on interchange fees for credit card transactions. For credit cards, the interchange fees may not exceed 0.3% of the transaction’s value. Member States can define lower caps, but they cannot exceed this limit.

Specific Rates in the Czech Republic

For Mastercard credit cards in the Czech Republic, the interchange fees are generally aligned with the EU caps. Here are some specific rates:

In summary, for consumer credit card transactions in the Czech Republic, the interchange fees are capped at 0.3% of the transaction value, in line with EU regulations.

Debit card payments capped at 0.20%

Mastercard Debit Cards – For Mastercard debit cards, the interchange fees are typically as follows:

Visa Debit Cards – For Visa debit cards, the interchange fees are similar:

Fee caps do not apply to commercial (corporate/business) card transactions, which can—and often do—incur significantly higher interchange fees (frequently above 1% and sometimes up to 2% or more).

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 the Czech Republic. 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.

Despite the discontinuation of local corporate services, American Express will maintain a presence in the Czech Republic. The company will continue to support global corporate programs and is investing in its merchant acceptance network in the country.

E-Money 

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

There is no electronic purse system in the country. But e-money payment services were offered by Czech and international e-money institutions. After implementation of the revised e-money directive (EMD2) in the Czech Republic became effective in 2011, the number of Czech e-money institutions under licensed the old Czech e-money law declined from 54 in 2010 to two in 2015 (2014: 9, 2013: 8, 2012: 8, 2011: 18, 2010: 54). By 2024, there were 3 e-money institutions resident in the Czech Republic, same as in 2023. There were also 11 small e-money issuers, and 234 foreign e-money institutions providing cross-border services in the Czech Republic. They provided notification of operating in the Czech Republic under the EU passport system.

Until end-2014, Czech e-money included bank prepaid cards, retailer cards with prepaid payment functions (e.g. CCS fleet cards), local wallets and other domestic payment services based on prepaid products and/or prepaid accounts. Prepaid products that do not meet the requirements of the e-money directive, EMD2/EMD3, were phased-out, e.g. Paysec.

From 2015 e-money payment services offered in the Czech Republic include reloadable prepaid cards, prepaid products and e-money cards giving access to prepaid accounts, e.g. Blesk Wallet and the COOP card, a combined loyalty and payment card for COOP customers.

Prepaid Products – paysafecard (A) entered the Czech Republic and launched its prepaid product, paysafecard. In addition, Neosurf is active in the country.

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 high-value corporate and low-value retail payment transactions. They can be paper-based or automated. Credit transfers are used by the government and companies for salary, supplier and benefit payments. Standing orders are particularly used for fixed, low-value recurring payments such as rent.

The Czech Republic is a part of the SEPA initiative for euro-denominated retail payments. At end-2024, all Czech banks participate in the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) scheme.

Direct debits are used for one-off payments (i.e. to settle card payments) and for recurring payments such as utility bills. Czech Post provides a service called SIPO, in which all periodic household utility bills can be paid in one recurrent transfer.

SEPA Direct Debit Schemes were launched on 2 November 2009. All Czech banks were required to accept SEPA direct debits (SDD Core and B2B) in euro denomination from 1 November 2014.

Instant payments (SCTINST) 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. In 2021, about 50% of all IBAN-based payments in Europe were processed intra-day, or even immediately inside of the same bank group. Potential first use cases for SCTINST in The Czech Republic 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.

An instant payment service has been in operation in the CERTIS RTGS system since 1 November 2018. The service is available 24/7/365. On 1 June 2021, the upper limit on one instant payment was increased from CZK 400,000 to CZK 2.5 million. 13 CERTIS participants had joined the instant payment scheme as of the end of 2021. In 2024, one in three payments was processed as an instant payment. In 2024, the CNB’s clearing centre processed 983.2 million transactions with a total value of CZK 386.5 trillion. This equates to 3.9 million transactions a day on average. The average daily value of the transactions was CZK 1,534 billion. As of end-2024, CERTIS had 45 direct participants with their own accounts and three third parties. One new direct participant joined CERTIS in 2023 – a financial institution based in the Czech Republic.

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.

In 2019, Ceská Sporitelna was the first bank in the Czech Republic that allowed clients to use instant payments without additional fees. From mid-August 2019, KB began receiving instant payments from other domestic banks that allowed their processing. From the beginning of October, KB also enabled clients to submit instant payments. As of 2019, instant payments were available in KB’s mobile banking and mobile banking business apps, as well as in MojeBanka and MojeBanka Business Internet banking.

In parallel to cards, the Czech banks push their secure online bank transfer services (e.g. eKonto, Mojeplatba, Mobilni banka, SERVIS 24) for internet use in online shops. Foreign payment initiation service providers (PISPs) offering cross-border credit transfers in The The Czech Republic include SOFORT (D) and Przelewy24 (PL).

As of December 2024, there were 29 payment institutions, four AISPs, 13 foreign-registered AISPs, 47 small-scale payment institutions, and 327 payment institutions providing cross-border services in the Czech Republic.

Authorised in another EEA member state, cross-border PISPs have provided notification of operating in the Czech Republic under the EU passport system.

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 Czech online shops, the wallets PayPal, Skrill, and Webmoney are offered as payment means.

PaySec Wallet – ČSOB had offered the mobile payments wallet service, Paysec. It was linked to a ČSOB prepaid account. By end-2016, the Paysec services was phased-out. ČSOB replaced it with its mobile HCE NFC wallet app.

PayPal – PayPal is available in the Czech Republic. 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 personalised 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 personalized 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.

In November 2014, Mastercard has launched its digital wallet, MasterPass, in the Czech market.

As at mid-2019, the digital wallet VISA Checkout has been enabled by PayU for the Czech market.

CSOB began supporting Garmin Pay in 2019, and Komerčni Banka now supports Apple Pay, Garmin Pay and Fitbit.

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 the Czech Republic are processed as payments on contactless cards.

Global contactless transaction values will reach $10 trillion by 2027, up from $4.6 trillion in 2022, with contactless mobile and wearable payments expected to grow by 221% and contactless card payments by 119% over the same period.

Contactless ticketing spend will increase by more than 440% globally between 2022 and 2027, with growing prominence and support for OEM pay solutions, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay being a key enabler for mobile NFC ticketing across many markets.

Overall growth in contactless transaction values will be catalysed by growing mobile payments adoption, with 99% of all smartphones capable of making contactless payments by 2027, up from 94% today, and average transaction values for Apple Pay reaching $28.20 and $33.40 for Google Pay.

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.

In 2019, Apple launched Apple Pay in the Czech Republic, and as of mid-2025, was available from 50 banks and payment providers.

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.

Google Pay launched in the Czech Republic in 2017 and is available from 48 banks and payment providers as of mid-2025.

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 announced it would launch in the Czech Republic in 2021 but is yet to do so.

Overview of Cashless Payments

Prior to 2010, CNB reported values for credit transfers and direct debits in CZK currency based on the CERTIS interbank payment system. Excluded are bilateral credit transfers and direct debits in euros between the Czech member banks of foreign bank groups. CERTIS figures are used in the cashless payment table of this report.

From 2015, online banking credit transfers were added by CNB to the credit transfer statistics. Therefore, figures until 2014 can no longer be compared with figures from 2015.

In 2024, card payments accounted for 62.05% of all cashless payments compared to 55.85% in the EU. The annual compound growth rate in card payments was 18.59% between 2020 and 2024.

However, credit transfers (33.05%) are still a widely used cashless payment instrument in the Czech Republic by number and by volume. Third by numbers in 2024 were direct debits (1.62%). Cheque payments (0.00%) continued to be marginal.

In 2024, there was a high level of 427.3 cash-less payments per capita, up 13.58% from 2023. They were composed of 274.2 card payments per capita, 146.0 credit transfers per capita, and 7.2 direct debits per capita.

2 - Cashless Payment Transactions in the Czech Republic
(millions)202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Payment cards 1,462.5 1,771.6 2,231.8 2,594.5 2,987.0 3,542.1 15.13%134.50%18.59%
Cheques issued0.1-0.0610.0410.028 -na-76.86%-25.38%
Credit transfers 911.6 977.8 1,313.9 1,424.4 1,591.0 1,784.2 11.70%77.36%12.14%
Direct debits41.840.578.874.178.1 87.2 5.43%73.44%11.64%
Total 2,417.1 2,791.2 3,794.0 4,259.0 4,813.5 5,413.5 13.02%123.01%17.40%
Total card payments per capita136.7168.7207.4238.5274.2331.114.94%129.64%18.09%
Total cheques issued per capita0.0-----nanana
Total credit transfers per capita85.293.1122.1130.9146.0166.811.52%73.68%11.67%
Total direct debits per capita3.93.97.36.87.28.25.26%69.85%11.18%
Total cashless payments per capita225.8265.7336.9376.3427.3506.113.58%105.76%15.52%
Note: payment cards include e-money transactions.
Note: credit transfer figures from 2015 include online bank payments.
Source: ECB, CNB.

Exchange Rates

The Czech Republic joined the European Union (EU) in May 2004. The Czech koruna (CZK) is the official currency of The Czech Republic; the exchange rate is free-floating.

In 2016, the CNB and the Ministry of Finance recommended that the Czech government should not set a target date for adopting the euro and thus should not attempt to enter ERM II during 2017. In 2021, the Czech government again postponed plans to adopt the euro and gave no timeline for adoption. As of mid-2022, the Czech government met 2 of the 5 conditions for adopting the euro but emphasised a lack of political will to adopt the Euro. The European Central Bank’s 2024 Convergence Report stated that none of the prospective eurozone members, including the Czech Republic, currently meet all the criteria for euro adoption.

As of 2025, the Czech Republic continues to fall short of the economic and institutional thresholds required for euro adoption. While it now meets some criteria (notably on government finances and interest rate convergence), the country still fails the price stability criterion (inflation remains too high relative to reference values) and, crucially, it is not part of the ERM II mechanism, disqualifying it on the exchange rate stability front.

Politically, the country has opted not to commit to a target adoption date. The CNB and finance ministry believe that further structural adjustment, convergence in prices and wages, and deeper legal/institutional readiness must precede any formal decision. Given these constraints, euro membership for the Czech Republic is unlikely in the near term, and most observers see a multi-year horizon before accession becomes realistic.

3 - Average Exchange Rates
20202021202220232024
1 EUR in CZK26.45525.64024.56624.00425.120
Source: ECB.

Market Infrastructure

In the area of non-cash payments, the CNB keeps the accounts of the state and operates systems for transferring interbank payments and settling short-term securities transactions. These transactions are executed through CERTIS (Czech Express Real-Time Interbank Gross Settlement System), the Short-Term Bond System (SKD) and the Automated Banking Operations (ABO) System.

The CNB uses the CERTIS system to process interbank payments in the Czech Republic. Banks, credit unions and foreign bank branches are participants in this system. As of 31 December 2024, CERTIS had 45 direct participants with their own accounts and 3 third parties (card payment clearing houses and securities clearing and settlement institutions). In 2022, the CNB continued to contribute to the smooth running of the payment system as the operator of the ABO and CERTIS payment systems.

CERTIS processed 983.2 million transactions in 2024 (up 8% year on year) with a total value of CZK 386,505 billion (up 17.3%). The system processed a daily average of 3.9 million transactions. The average daily turnover was CZK 1,534 billion. After the sharp decline in 2018, which was caused by a change in the structure of monetary policy operations where banks switched from overnight deposits to two-week collateralised deposits due to an increase in the two-week repo rate, the average daily turnover is growing slightly again.

An instant payment service has been in operation in CERTIS since 1 November 2018. An instant payment is a one-off electronic payment in CZK processed in seconds by instant payment scheme participants. In June 2021, the upper limit on one instant payment was increased from CZK 400,000 to CZK 2.5 million. 13 CERTIS participants had joined the instant payment scheme as of the end of 2021. In 2024, one in three payments was processed as an instant payment. One new direct participant joined CERTIS in 2022 – a financial institution based in the Czech Republic.

SBK/BCA – Czech Bank Card Association 

SBK/BCA, the Czech Bank Card Association, was formed in 1991 as the Interbank Payment Card Association to coordinate activities of the Czech banking community and promote the development of payment cards, including preparations for SEPA. Only financial institutions can be full members; all major banks are members.

The SBK/BCA Security Committee deals with the issues of security and security standards in the area of payment cards and takes action against payment card fraud. SBK/BCA delegates co-operate with their counterparts from individual payment card issuers and processors and with the international card companies and the Czech police authorities. SBK/BCA is the point of contact for the Czech National Bank and is invited to assist in drafting and amending regulations relating to payments and cards.

There is a wealth of data from SBK/BCA which is reported in a different format from the ECB. It includes three-party schemes, private label cards and fuel cards. Thus, SBK/BCA data sources are added in this profile to provide more insight.

QR-code based Payments – In 2012, the use of QR-codes was enabled by standardising the form of the codes within the Czech Banking Association.

Card Issuers – Overview

Czech banks issue 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.

In 2024,19 Czech banks and other institutions issued cards. All Czech retail banks issue debit cards (Mastercard, Maestro, Debit Mastercard) and credit cards (Mastercard, VISA).

UniCredit Bank was the main issuer of Diners cards as it owned Diners Club CS through Austrian DC Bank. However, in 2015, UniCredit Bank-Austria (A) sold DC Bank to its subsidiary card complete (A). Diners Club is no longer bank-issued in the Czech Republic.

J&T Banka and Unicredit were previously issuers of American Express cards. However, as of 2020, American Express cards are no longer bank-issued in the Czech Republic.

Leading issuers are Ceska Sporitelna, ČSOB, Komerční banka, Moneta Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, and UniCredit Bank. Table 4 illustrates the card brands issued by the leading Czech card issuers as of mid-2025.

4 - Leading Card Issuers in the Czech Republic
Domestic IssuersIssued Card BrandsOwned by
Česká spořitelna (CS)Mastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard, VISA DebitErste Group (A)
CSOBMastercard, VISA; Debit Mastercard, VISA DebitKBC Bank Group (B)
Komerční Banka (KB)VISASociété Générale (F): 60,35%, Free Float: 39.65%
UniCredit Bank CZ+SKMastercard, VISA, Debit MastercardUniCredit Group (I)
Raiffeisen BankMastercard; Debit Mastercard Raiffeisen Bank International (A)
Moneta Money BankMastercard, VISA; Debit MastercardInstitutional and individual investors
J&T BankaMastercardJ&T Finance Group (SK)
ING Bank CZVISAING Group (NL)
Expobank CZMastercardExpobank (RUS)
Oberbank CZ Mastercard; Debit MastercardOberbank Group (A)
Air BankMastercard PPF Investments (CZ)
Fio BankaMastercard; Debit MastercardPrivate Investors (CZ)
American Express (UK)American ExpressAmerican Express (US)
Diners Cub CSDinersDC Bank (A)
CCSCCSFleetCor (US)
Consumer Finance IssuersIssued Card Brandsowned by
Hello bank!Mastercard; AuraBNP Paribas Group (F)
Home CreditMastercard2018: Monety Money Bank (CZ)
ESSOXMastercardKomerční Banka (CZ)
Note: cards branded Mastercard or VISA are issued as credit cards and also as immediate debit cards.
Source: PCM research

Outlook – By mid-2025, Czech 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 the Czech Republic, 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 multi-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 specialised e-/m-payment service processors (PSPs) to the card acquirers and independent payment service providers (e.g. FinTechs like PayPal), respectively.

The leading card processor in the Czech Republic is Global Payments Europe (GPE) followed by Nexi (formerly SIA), Fiserv (formerly First Data), Euronet, EVO Payments, Worldline, and FleetCor.

Global Payments Europe (GPE): Retains the largest processing footprint, supporting a broad range of Czech banks, merchants, and payment service providers.​

Nexi (formerly SIA): Following its merger and rebranding, Nexi is a key player, operating substantial acquiring and processing partnerships with Czech financial institutions.​

Fiserv (formerly First Data): Continues to offer both acquiring and processing services, partnering with local banks for merchant solutions.​

Euronet: Maintains a strong ATM network and card acquiring presence, especially for cash withdrawal and dynamic currency conversion services.​

EVO Payments and Worldline: Active in merchant acquiring, e-commerce processing, and value-added services.​

FleetCor: Focuses primarily on fuel card processing and corporate expense management in the Czech market.

Česká spořitelna and UniCredit Bank CZ+SK operate their own card processing centres. Raiffeisen Bank CZ cooperates with the issuer processor of RBI Group, the Raiffeisen Processing Centre (RPC) in Slovakia. All other major banks, including Moneta Money Bank, use Global Payments Europe (GPE) for issuer card processing, authorisation, and switching. Some, including ČSOB, also use the card management services of GPE for issuer back-end processing.

In September 2020, Worldline completed its acquisition of a 53% majority stake in GoPay, an online payment services provider for small and medium-sized businesses in the Czech Republic, which manages online payments for over 10,000 shops in the country. In 2022, Worldline has a right to acquire the remaining 47% of GoPay share capital.

During 2020 Moneta upgraded its card management system for a cost of more than CZK 350 million. It included migration of more than 900,000 card details into the new platform. The project was successfully completed during April 2020 and will bring considerable cost benefits as the new ecosystem has been designed as “Software as a Service”.

As part of the transformation and digitisation, KB switched the processing of all outgoing and incoming interbank payments handled via the CERTIS payment system of the CNB to its new internal Payment Hub application, which provides centralised payment processing in KB. In 2022, KB plans to integrate all client standing orders into the Payment Hub application, as well as processing of card transactions. In 2023, KB integrated the processing of SEPA and foreign payments into the Payment Hub application, as well as communication with Czech Post during the processing of SIPO direct debit mandates and the implementation of SIPO collections. All types of payment orders are gradually being migrated through the Payment Hub as part of migrating clients to the new digital bank, and this migration will continue in the years ahead. In 2024, KB expects to upgrade the processing of SEPA payments according to the new SEPA Rulebook, and it will prepare to process incoming SEPA instant payments for its branch of a foreign bank in Slovakia in accordance with the requirements of European regulation.

Global Payments Europe (GPE) is the main third-party card processor in the Czech Republic, processing card transactions for 5 major banks, including Raiffeisen and CSOB. In September 2019, Global Payments completed its acquisition of TSYS, a leading payments technology company based in the US. Performance data for the combined entity is provided below.

As of 2021, Global Payments processed card transactions worth $17 billion. In the Czech Republic, Global Payments processes around 1.3 billion transactions annually.

In August 2022, Global Payments announced its acquisition of EVO Payments, in a move aimed at increasing Global Payments’ target addressable markets, expand its presence in new and existing faster-growth geographies, and augment its B2B software and payment solutions with the addition of accounts receivable software with broad third-party acceptance. The combined entity will have 4.5 million merchant locations and more than 1,500 financial institutions worldwide. The transaction will expand Global Payments’ geographic footprint into new geographies such as Poland, Germany, Chile, and upon closing, Greece, as well as enhance its scale in existing markets, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Ireland, and the UK. The transaction was completed in March 2023.

Global Payments Insights – Following the completion of the TSYS acquisition, GP services 3.5 million merchants in more than 100 countries and processes 50 billion transactions for more than 600 million customers of 1,300 financial institutions globally. Consolidated revenues were $10.11 billion for 2024 (2023: $9.65 billion).

GP is a leading mid-market and small-market merchant acquirer in the US where it competes primarily with Bank of America Merchant Services, Chase Paymentech, Elavon, First Data Corporation, Heartland Payment Systems, Vantiv and Wells Fargo.

GP claims to have significant market share in Canada, where it competes with Chase Paymentech Solutions, TD Merchant Services and Moneris Solutions – a joint venture between Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada.

In the UK market, GP claims to be the third largest in the market, compared to Barclays and WorldPay. In Spain, GP holds the No. 1 market share position, competing with BBVA, Popular Payments, Caja Madrid and Santander.

In the Russian Federation, GP holds the No. 1 market share position among non-bank processors in the highly fragmented payments market competing with Raiffeisen Bank, Russian Standard Bank, Sberbank and VTB. In The The Czech Republic, its primary competitors are Euronet, First Data Corporation, EVO Payments Europe and SIA. In the Asia-Pacific region, GP’s competitors include financial institutions that offer merchant acquiring services in the local markets.

In Europe, Global Payments has also entered acquiring joint ventures with HSBC in the UK, HSBC Merchant Services, and Spanish Caixabank, Comercia Global Payments (see Spain and UK profiles). In July 2015, GPE signed an agreement with Este Group (A) regarding an acquiring joint venture in Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic (see below).

In 2014, Global Payments announced the support of Apple Pay in the USA and in the UK (2015). In 2015, Global Payments announced the support of Android Pay and Samsung Pay.

On April 22, 2016, Global Payments completed the merger with processor Heartland in a transaction valued at $4.4 billion, including assumed debt of $0.4 billion. As a result, Heartland became a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Payments Inc.

Nexi (formerly SIA) – Since 2006, ČSOB credit card transactions had been processed by SiNSYS, which specialised in cross-border processing, as part of the group-wide agreement between KBC and SiNSYS (see Italy profile). SiNSYS processed credit cards for Belgian, Dutch and Italian banks, as well as for CEE banks owned by UniCredit. In 2011, SiNSYS was managing more than 25 million cards, 700,000 merchants, and more than 1 billion transactions annually processed in 10 countries – Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, The Czech Republic, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia. In September 2012, Italian processor SIA struck a deal to buy Atos’ 49% stake in SiNSYS, giving it full ownership. In April 2013, SiNSYS was absorbed by SIA.

In October 2020, Italian processor Nexi announced its intention to acquire SIA in a deal worth an estimated €5.3 billion. The closing of the deal was planned for September 2021 following receipt of regulatory approvals. The new group will be the largest group in Europe for number of merchants served (2 million), number of cards (120 million), and number of transactions executed each year (21 billion).

First Data Slovakia absorbed by SIA – ACS, the former Authorisation Centre of Slovakia, was established after the break-up of Czechoslovakia in June 1994 when the Slovak banks purchased ‘enterprise INESCO’, the Slovak part of MUZO (see Slovakia profile). ACS was later renamed Transacty and was 68%-owned by Norwegian telecoms company Telenor until January 2004, when the controlling stake was sold to Oslo-based EuroProcessing International (EPI), with local banks holding the balance. In July 2005, EPI was acquired by First Data (US) and Transacty became known as First Data Slovakia.

In May 2018, Italian processor SIA and First Data (US) signed an agreement for SIA to acquire First Data’s card processing businesses in parts of Central and South-eastern Europe for €387 million. In July 2019, Fiserv completed the purchase of First Data for $22 billion in an all-stock transaction.

CCS (Ceská Spolecnost Pro Platebni Karty) operates a proprietary fuel card business, with more than 35,000 corporate clients. In 2021, CCS cards were accepted at over 4,000 service stations in the Czech Republic, effectively the entire Czech petrol station network, and in Slovakia. Through a link with UTA of The Czech Republic, CCS also issues UTA/CCS and Mercedes Service Cards, with 37,000 acceptance points, including road tolls, in 38 European countries.

In August 2005, the private equity firm Advent International bought CCS from JP Morgan Chase Asset Management and the founders of CCS, with JP Morgan Chase receiving $30 million net for its 38% stake. In October 2006, Advent sold CCS to FleetCor Inc (US), a global provider of specialised payment products and services including fleet cards, food cards, corporate lodging discount cards and other specialised payment services for businesses. FleetCor serves over 500,000 commercial accounts with millions of cardholders across the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa and Asia.

As of mid-2025, CCS serves more than 35,000 businesses and individuals across the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with its fuel cards accepted at more than 2,700 locations across the two countries, in addition to acceptance internationally managed by the FleetCor network.

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.

Czech online merchants are serviced on demand by their acquirers and few PSPs. Leading PSPs in the Czech Republic include REVO Payments, GP Webpay, PayU, TrustPay (SK), dotpay (PL), and BPay.

REVO Payments: Continues to provide online payment tools and merchant services, widely used for e-commerce and bill payments in the Czech Republic.​

GP Webpay: Operated by Global Payments Europe, GP Webpay remains a prominent local payment gateway for card payments and online banking integrations with Czech merchants.​

PayU: An established multinational PSP, PayU offers secure online payment solutions and supports most Czech cards and local payment methods.​

TrustPay (Slovakia): Popular for cross-border and multicurrency payments, especially for merchants operating in both the Czech and Slovak markets.​

dotpay (Poland): Serves Czech and international merchants, supporting a wide array of payment channels and currency conversions for e-commerce.​

BPay: Focuses on seamless online payment solutions, direct bank transfers, and integration with popular Czech shopping platforms.

Additionally, Czech online merchants are serviced by the Czech banks and by foreign PSPs such as:

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 and 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, Czech acquirers face the following notable challenges:

The Czech retail banks all issue cards. However, in 2016, the Czech acquirer market was reshaped. The five leading acquirers are Global Payments, ČSOB and KB SmartPay followed by UniCredit Bank, and REVO Payments. In 2016, Fio Banka started its acquiring business in the Czech Republic.

All Czech acquirers accept Mastercard, VISA, Debit Mastercard, Maestro, Electron and VPAY cards. Five entities acquire JCB cards, including Česká spořitelna, CSOB, Global Payments, Hobex and KB. Global Payments is the American Express card acquirer. Diners Club CS, owned by DC Bank (A), and four of DC Bank’s partner banks are Diners and Discover acquirers. CSOB Bank, Ceska sporitelna, KB, Euronet and Moneta are the UnionPay acquirers.

Cross-border acquirers in the country include Worldline SIX Payment Services (CH/L) and Worldpay (UK).

All Czech acquirers have arranged partner agreements to accept all brands of cards on merchants’ demand. However, separate acceptance contracts are practiced in some cases for obvious business reasons demanded by the merchants.

Table 5 illustrates the card brands accepted by individual acquirer active in the Czech Republic as at mid-2025.

5 - Leading Acquirers in the Czech Republic
Domestic AcquirersAcceptance Brands offeredOwned by
KB SmartPayMastercard, VISA, Diners, Discover, JCB, UnionPay; Electron, V PAY JV Komerční Banka: 20%, Worldline: 80%
Global PaymentsMastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, Discover, JCB, UnionPay; Electron, V PAY JV Global Payments, Comercia, Erste Group (A)
CSOBMastercard, VISA, Diners, Discover, JCB; Electron, V PAY KBC Bank Group (B)
UniCredit Bank CZ+SKMastercard, VISA; Electron, V PAY, JCBUniCredit Group (I)
REVO PaymentsMastercard, VISA, Diners, Discover; Electron, V PAY JV EVO Payments (D), Raiffeisen Bank (CZ)
Fio BankaMastercard, VISA; Electron, V PAY Private Investors (CZ)
American ExpressAmerican ExpressAmerican Express (US)
Diners Club CSDiners, DiscoverDC Bank (A)
Note: in June 2016, Česká Spořitelna transferred its POS terminals and acquiring business to the JV Global Payments/Erste.
Note: in September 2016, Komerční Banka transferred its POS terminals and acquiring business to the JV KB/Worldline, KB SmartPay.
Source: PCM research

Československá obchodní banka (ČSOB) – In 2024, ČSOB acquired 1.18 billion transactions worth $24.97 billion, from 74,077 merchant outlets and 134,520 POS terminals.

Global Payments – In July 2015, Global Payments (US), CaixaBank (E), and Erste Group Bank (A) formed a joint venture to provide merchant acquiring and payment services in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania that included the acquiring business of Česká spořitelna.

Global Payments and CaixaBank paid €30 million in cash to acquire a 51% majority ownership in the venture. Erste Group has 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 2024, Global Payments acquired 6.49 billion transactions worth $285.58 billion from over 592,600 merchant outlets and 1,120,312 POS terminals. These include its acquisition of EVO Germany and its business in the United Kingdom, Greece, Poland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Austria, Hungary, Malta, Romania and Slovakia.

REVO Payments – In June 2015, Raiffeisen Bank CZ decided to separate its activities relating to payment card acceptance. The RBI Group intended to dispose of these activities. The total assets held for sale was CZK 33.75 million as of 31 December 2015, and the assets predominantly included payment terminals placed at merchants.

In August 2015, Raiffeisen Bank CZ entered into a partnership with acquirer and card processor EVO Payments International (US), and Raiffeisen Bank CZ transferred its acquiring business to the new joint venture, REVO Payments.

KB SmartPay – In September 2016, Komerční Banka and Worldline (F) signed an agreement to form an alliance for payment card acceptance, merchant acquiring, and payment processing services to retailers under brand name KB SmartPay across the Czech Republic.

In 2021, under the KB SmartPay brand, KB developed a business alliance with Worldline in the payment card area. In the Czechia Pays by Card project, over 5,000 new merchants were contracted, achieving a 32% year-on-year increase in the number of processed card transactions. At the end of 2021, the PayPhone service was launched, enabling the acceptance of cards by a certified mobile application (i.e. without the need to use a payment terminal). By October 2022, KB SmartPay provided more than 8,000 terminals and payment gateways. Under the KB SmartPay brand, KB continues to co-operate successfully in a business alliance with Worldline in the field of payment card acceptance. With a portfolio of more than 40,000 clients, KB claims to be the largest acceptance provider on the Czech market. KB expanded its network of acquirers during 2023 by more than 3,000 new business locations.

Payment Institutions in the Czech Republic

As of 31 December 2024, there were 85 payment institutions resident in the Czech Republic and operating in the Czech financial market (2023: 88, 2022: 88, 2021: 97, 2020: 111, 2019: 127, 2018: 92, 2017: 87, 2016: 84, 2015: 81, 2014: 80, 2013: 74, 2012: 61, 2011: 50, and 2010: 22).

Also, CNB recorded 327 foreign payment institutions with an EU passport in 2024 (2023: 307, 2022: 288, 2021: 275, 2020: 532, 2019: 468, 2018: 396, 2016-17: 360, 2015: 311, 2014: 245, 2013: 200, 2012: 143, 2011: 103, and 2010: 45) that are operating in the country on a cross-border basis. Five of the total cross-border payment institutions provided services through an established branch, and seven through an agent.

ATM Terminal Infrastructure

The leading Czech banks operate own ATM network hubs (e.g. CS) or are using the processing services of GPE. All five ATM networks in the Czech Republic are interoperable. The EMV migration of ATM devices is complete.

Czech ATM terminals are open for debit cards (Debit Mastercard, Maestro, Cirrus, Electron, VISA Debit, V PAY, Plus) and credit cards (Mastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, Discover, Pulse and JCB). Also, Komerční Banka (KB), CSOB, Moneta and Ceska Sporitelna ATMs accept UnionPay cards.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen in the sharp decline in cash usage in 2020, although usage had rebounded somewhat in 2021 and 2022. In 2024, there were 5,034 ATMs with cash function (-1.06%) and 140.83 million cash withdrawals (-1.77%) with a total value of CZK 869.87 billion (+2.44% from 2023). There were 2,331.3 withdrawals per ATM per month, and the ATV per cash withdrawal accounted for CZK 6,176.78 (€245.89). Around 2,300 ATMs were indoor ATMs in bank branches.

6 - ATMs and Cash Withdrawals in the Czech Republic
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
ATM Terminals with cash function4,8365,0515,2005,0885,0345,043-1.06%0.88%0.18%
Ø Number of TXs per ATM per month2,446.22,339.72,299.02,348.22,331.32,434.2-0.72%-21.56%-4.74%
Number of ATM cash withdrawals (m)141.96141.81143.46143.37140.83147.30-1.77%-20.87%-4.57%
- on domestic cards (m)139.41139.07139.56139.46136.75143.05-1.94%-21.01%-4.61%
- on foreign cards (m)2.552.743.893.924.084.264.26%-15.71%-3.36%
Value of ATM cash withdrawals (CZKbn)720.26791.28825.46849.17869.87887.452.44%9.12%1.76%
- on domestic cards (CZKbn)708.70778.46807.98833.90852.57867.872.24%9.30%1.79%
- on foreign cards (CZKbn)11.5512.8117.4915.2817.3019.5813.21%1.06%0.21%
ATV per cash withdrawal (CZK)5,073.805,579.795,754.045,922.846,176.786,024.634.29%37.89%6.64%
Ø Annual withdrawal value/ATM (CZKm)148.94156.66158.74166.90172.80175.983.54%8.17%1.58%
# ATM Terminals per 1m capita - Czechia452.0481.0483.3467.7462.0471.4-1.22%-1.21%-0.24%
# ATM Terminals per 1m capita - EU27685.3678.8642.2642.2642.2605.60.00%-25.42%-5.70%
Note: ECB figures reported instead of BCA figures, which include only data from BCA members.
Source: ECB, CNB.

The three largest banks account for three-quarters of the ATM network, with Česká spořitelna alone operating 1,611 ATMs at end-2024, giving it a 32.00% market share. Table 21 provides more details on CS’s ATMs and ATM transactions.

As of 2024, ČSOB reported 1,036 ATMs, of which 1,034 were contactless, and 370 enabled cash deposits while 1,023 were customised for visually impaired clients.

ČSOB provides cash at around 2,500 post office outlets and at cash desks at Albert and COOP stores, Family Drogerie and CEPRO EuroOil petrol stations.

Komerční Banka had 791 ATMs at end-2024, and UniCredit Bank CZ + SK had 400 ATMs in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia at end-2024. Moneta Money Bank reported 557 ATMs (2011: 690). Table 22 provides more details on KB’s ATMs and ATM transactions.

Cash-advance Services in the Czech Republic – 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 Czech banks support cash-advance services on cards at POS terminals in retail outlets (see below).

Contactless ATMs – In 2016, ČSOB launched 80 contactless ATMs (2017: 302). In February 2017, Air Bank launched contactless ATMs of Diebold Nixdorf that enable consumers to withdraw cash without inserting a card into the card reader. Instead, for user authentication, they can tap a contactless card or an NFC sticker to the contactless reader of the ATM and enter their PIN-code on an encrypted touchscreen (PIN-on-Glass).

Independent ATM services are offered by Euronet Worldwide and by First Data. In July 2006, First Data announced an outsourcing deal in The The Czech Republic with ABN Amro, NCR and the Czech company Pharro. The deal called for roll-out of 100 new ABN Amro ATMs across the country, to be installed and managed by Pharro, with First Data Slovakia taking responsibility for ATM processing. At that time, Pharro announced plans for a new generation of mobile Cashomat ATMs, the aim of the project being to roll out 4,000 ATMs in 29 cities across the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Fio Banka became a partner of Pharro in February 2011 and within co-branding, it currently offers its clients the ability to withdraw cash from Pharro ATMs under better conditions. In cooperation with Fio Banka, Pharro claimed to expand its ATM network by installing them at bank branches or at surrounding locations.

POS Terminal Infrastructure 

The leading Czech acquirers operate own POS terminal network hubs, or they are using the processing services of GPE. The five POS terminal networks in the Czech Republic are interoperable. EMV migration of POS terminals is complete.

Accepted card brands at Czech POS terminals are debit cards (Debit Mastercard, Maestro, VISA Debit, Electron, V PAY), and credit cards (Mastercard, VISA, American Express, Diners, Discover, and JCB). Selected merchants accept as well UnionPay cards at POS terminals frequented by tourists.

In 2024, there were 268,142 contactless POS terminals (+5.44%). Other type of terminals in the Czech Republic included in the total are: devices in bank branches, card-not-present devices, vending machines, and devices integrated with an ECR device for cash handling.

According to the CNB, POS payments have shown a five-year annual compound growth rate of 14.42%. In 2024, POS payments made with domestic and foreign cards were 1,906.07 million (+12.17%) with a total value of CZK 1,017.92 billion (+9.63% vs 2023) amounting to 592.4 POS payments per POS terminal per month. The ATV per POS payment declined to CZK 534.04 (€21.26) due to more frequent card use for smaller purchase amounts and higher use of contactless cards.

7 - POS Terminals in the Czech Republic
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Merchants Number82,92187,68986,92888,147106,380128,38420.68%42.20%7.30%
Merchant Outlets Number178,158192,754197,313200,082215,516232,1417.71%38.14%6.68%
POS terminals246,244274,286238,965254,298268,142281,5875.44%27.71%5.01%
- of which POS terminals located in the country230,911230,513224,887234,547245,539256,6744.69%24.83%4.53%
- of which contactless POS terminals246,244274,286224,875234,535245,528281,5874.69%16.94%3.18%
Ø Number of TXs per POS per month366.0397.9515.7556.8592.4640.36.38%53.59%8.96%
Number of POS payments (m)1,081.441,309.641,478.721,699.241,906.072,163.5312.17%96.16%14.42%
- on domestic cards (m)1,018.051,181.021,374.881,557.631,738.201,983.6511.59%93.56%14.12%
- on foreign cards (m)63.39128.62103.85141.61167.86179.8818.54%127.75%17.89%
Value of POS payments (CZK bn)636.25755.28828.77928.481,017.921,135.239.63%72.22%11.48%
- on domestic cards (CZK bn)583.92672.01743.28808.61865.15960.336.99%68.52%11.00%
- on foreign cards (CZK bn)52.3483.2785.49119.86152.78174.9127.46%96.67%14.48%
ATV per POS payment (CZK)588.34576.71560.46546.41534.04524.71-2.26%-12.20%-2.57%
# POS Terminals per 1m capita - Czech Republic23,013.126,120.422,209.623,377.224,610.826,323.95.28%25.07%4.57%
# POS Terminals per 1m capita - EU27 total31,503.734,817.044,815.544,815.544,815.548,528.80.00%48.89%8.29%
Cash-advances at POS terminals (m)2.692.363.053.213.373.205.00%118.28%16.90%
Cash-advances value at POS terminals (CZK bn)4.453.804.494.714.954.705.00%101.55%15.05%
ATV per cash-advance (CZK)1,039.15858.14880.29877.99886.66793.150.99%61.88%10.11%
Note: Czech POS terminals include stand-alone POS terminals and other types of integrated POS terminals.
Source: ECB, Czech National Bank (CNB).

Cash-Advance services (‘cashback’) up to a maximum of CZK 1,500 are offered at POS terminals in 7,625 outlets. In 2024, cashbacks amounted to an estimated 3.37 million cash-advances with the value CZK 4.95 billion (see Table 7).

In Table 8 and Table 9, the Czech Bank Card Association (SBK/BCA) provides a more detailed breakdown by POS terminal type and further insight into card acceptance at Czech POS terminals by card brand. From 2014, imprinters are no longer used. It is noted that the figures of SBK/BCA members include cross-border volumes that are not included in the ECB figures for the Czech Republic.

8 - Additional POS Terminal Type Information
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Outlets with EFTPOS terminals178,158192,754197,313200,082215,5167.71%38.14%6.68%
Total EFT/POS terminals (BCA)275,627292,681307,193323,782351,6788.62%53.18%8.90%
- thereof contactless POS terminals (BCA)256,694271,663283,358296,281319,9377.98%49.54%8.38%
Number of online merchants12,32517,53419,82719,10624,79129.76%118.60%16.93%
Number of outlets offering 'cashback'6,7876,7487,6957,3017,6254.44%15.76%2.97%
POS terminals (ECB)246,244274,286238,965254,298268,1425.44%27.71%5.01%
- thereof EFTPOS terminals located in the country230,911230,513224,887234,547245,5394.69%24.83%4.53%
Source: BCA, ECB.
9 - Acceptance Points by Card Type
Number
of
outlets		Number of
POS Terminals		Number of NFC POS terminalsNumber of transactions (000s)Value of transactions (CZKm)Value of transactions (€m)ATV per POS Payment
(€)
Mastercard 216,226 351,531 319,785 981,789.9 527,095.4 20,983.1€2.37
VISA 216,226 351,678 319,937 1,294,470.3 696,293.9 27,718.7€2.38
Diners Club 27,413 44,966 34,087 14.7 18.9 0.8€5.68
Others na na na 1,236.1 1,230.1 49.0€4.40
Total 215,516 351,678 319,937 2,277,511.1 1,224,638.4 48,751.5€2.38
Note: Y2024 figures; an exchange rate of €1=CZK25,120 has been used.
Source: Czech Bank Card Association.

MPOS Terminals – Small and mobile merchants have started to use their smartphone and tablet PCs as a kind of mini-POS+ECR device with added chip reader dongle. In late 2012, Square clones like iZettle, SumUp, Miura, and others have launched their MPOS services in Europe. It is expected that Czech merchants will also demand MPOS terminals. Further, merchants can initiate MOTO-like card payments on their smartphones and tablets by downloading a payment app.

In September 2013, ČSOB with Czech MNO Telefónica and terminal vendor Ingenico announced it would trial an app and card reader-based MPOS terminal that supported NFC payments. The MPOS trial saw small merchants use a reader from Ingenico combined with an iOS, Android or Windows app. Retailers entered the amount to be paid in the app and the customer inserted an EMV chip card and entered their PIN or – for low value transactions – tapped a contactless card or NFC-enabled mobile phone. Merchants paid a 2.79% transaction fee during the pilot and ČSOB cleared the card payments.

In 2015, Česká spořitelna introduced its MPOS terminal solution, together with Datacard and Vodafone.

In October 2017, SumUp launched its MPOS terminal service in the Czech Republic. Small business owners in the Czech Republic can take card payments with their smartphone and the SumUp Air card reader without any monthly fees or contractual obligations.

In April 2019, Wirecard and telecom firm O2 expanded mPOS terminal cooperation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The partnership would have expanded merchant coverage in the two countries, with Wirecard providing acquiring, payment processing and fiscal law compliance checks, with O2 taking responsibility for merchant onboarding. However, in June 2020, Wirecard went into insolvency and no further updates were given on the mPOS partnership with O2.

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, Jusp, Handpoint, PAX, Poynt, Spire Payments, Verifone, Worldline, and others have launched their SmartPOS devices and services in Europe. It is believed that Czech SME merchants will embrace SmartPOS terminals.

Fiscal Printer – In 2016, a new till system law was implemented in the Czech Republic requiring retailers to conclude payment transactions online. Payment details are then forwarded to the national tax office where they are reviewed in order to avoid tax fraud.

In August 2016, Czech mobile network operator O2, in partnership with acquirer WireCard (D), launched a fiscal till system eKasa, and MPOS terminal solution. O2’s drive into the Czech POS market comes on the back of new fiscal printer rules requiring Czech retailers to conclude payment transaction details online and then forwarded to the national tax office where they are reviewed in order to avoid tax fraud. In May 2016, O2’s parent company, Telefonica, signed an agreement with Czech direct bank Fidor to use its technical infrastructure and banking license to create a new digital bank in the Czech Republic, O2 Banking.

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

In 2024, the Czech Republic continued to be a smaller e-commerce market with an emerging online shopping population. From 2015, due to EU VAT regulation, Czech merchants will have to collect the applicable VAT rate for cross-border sales based on the consumers’ residence.

Internet Use – In 2024, 94% of Czech people had access to the internet and 81% of users had purchased in online shops in the last 12 months. E-commerce’s share of overall retail stood at 15.1% in 2023 down from 16% in 2022. In 2005, the share of online sales in Czech retail was only 1.6%. The number of online retailers in Czech Republic is reported by Statista to exceed 50,000 in 2023, reflecting the ongoing expansion of the e-commerce sector in the country. However, e-commerce is dominated by Alza.

In 2024, the total B2C e-commerce purchase value was €11.20 billion, same level as in 2023. The online purchase value per capita amounted to €1,028.0, while it was €1,192.9 per online buyer. E-commerce (eGDP) had a 3.51% market share in the Czech GDP.

Czech websites are the most popular ones among users, but foreign online stores are gaining popularity as well, mostly due to lower prices and access to a variety of products not available in the Czech Republic. Most of the cross-border purchases are made from websites from China, the EU (particularly The Czech Republic) and the United States.

The fastest-growing segments for Czech e-commerce are groceries, followed by hobbies, cosmetics, and toys. Fashion may enjoy rising sales post-COVID-19, as 30% of consumers said they plan to spend more money online in this category in the future instead of in physical stores.

10 - Internet Use in the Czech Republic
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Web merchants accepting cards12,32517,53419,82719,10624,79128,98829.76%118.60%16.93%
Households with internet access88%89%91%93%95%95%1.90%8.69%1.68%
Last internet use (individuals, 12 months)89%90%92%93%94%96%1.08%6.82%1.33%
Internet users who bought online81%83%84%84%86%89%2.74%18.48%3.45%
Last online purchase (individuals, 12 month)72%75%77%78%81%85%3.85%26.56%4.82%
Last online purchase (individuals, 3 month)59%63%63%63%63%66%0.00%46.51%7.94%
Mobile phone subscriptions per 100 population123.4%126.4%128.4%126.0%127.0%127.3%0.79%2.15%0.43%
B2C eCommerce revenue (€bn)10.7012.6011.6011.2011.2011.800.00%26.70%4.85%
Annual B2C eCommerce growth rate/year21.0%17.8%-7.9%-3.4%0.0%5.4%−-100.00%-100.00%
Ø B2C e-Commerce amount per capita €1,000.0€1,199.9€1,078.1€1,029.6€1,028.0€1,103.1-0.16%24.07%4.41%
Ø B2C e-Commerce amount per online buyer€1,236.1€1,439.9€1,288.1€1,227.6€1,192.9€1,245.9-2.82%4.71%0.93%
Note: eCommerce revenue figures have been restated.
Source: Eurostat, ITU.

Cards on the Internet (CNP) – All cards with international brands are accepted in Czech online shops if the merchant has signed an acceptance contract accordingly. Also, the Czech banks issue prepaid cards and virtual cards for internet use only. 3D-Secure technology is recommended when paying with cards in online shops. Further, web-based mail order services for merchant-initiated payments and Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) are offered.

The e-payment mix in the Czech Republic– Credit cards are the most popular online payment option among Czech consumers, at 27%, followed by online bank transfer (8%) and digital wallet (4%). Cash on delivery remains the most popular payment method for online purchases at 29%. The popularity of click-and-collect, whereby shoppers pick up and pay for items with cash in-store, has driven its usage.

KB reported that in 2024, there was a significant rise in the number and volume of card transactions by 10% and 9% respectively. The largest increase was seen in online purchases, where value expanded by 39% and the volume by 33%.

Competing with online payments on cards, many Czech banks push their secure online banking credit transfer services (e.g. eKonto, Mojeplatba, Mobilni banka and SERVIS 24) for internet use in online shops.

Remote Payments on the Mobile Internet – Since 2011, 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.

Additionally, Czech merchants can download a payment app from their acquirer in order to initiate MOTO payments with cards and/or online direct debits. Leading Czech merchants have started testing their own mobile apps including loyalty functions (e. g. e-vouchers, discounts, outlet finder, QR-code scanning).

Mobile Payments – Overview

In 2024, 127% of the Czechs have subscribed to a mobile phone. Many Czechs own more than one mobile phone and 84.3% used a smartphone in 2024 (42% in 2013). Also, tablet penetration (57%) has jumped from a very low level.

Since 2008, 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 the Czech Republic are field testing and using 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 the retail POS outlet (1D-barcodes, QR-code, BLE, Bluetooth Low Energy, NFC Stickers, Mobile NFC Phones) e.g.:

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

As of 2020, around 54% of e-commerce was conducted through mobile devices, while 48% was completed in-app. Sales via mobile devices are outperforming desktop-based sales, and the mobile commerce market is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 19.7% to 2023, compared with overall e-commerce’s 10.8% prediction, to reach €6.7 billion in sales.

Mobile Payment Initiative Details

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

Leading Mobile Payment Trends

Central Bank Digital Currencies, Cryptocurrency Products 

In 2024, the Czech 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 (CBDC) – 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 CBDCs 

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

As of 2023, the global CBDC 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 CBDC pilot: France, Canada, China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Ghana.

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

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

CBDC, 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 one 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.

CBDC and the Czech Republic

In 2021, the Czech National Bank announced an internal working group to evaluate CBDC trends. In a BIS report in 2022, the CNB stated that it did not see a reason for the issuance of a CBDC in the Czech Republic. In April 2022, in a BIS paper, the CNB stated its findings by saying that given its needs, the CNB would focus on upgrading the current payments infrastructure instead of developing a CBDC.

The CNB is cautiously approaching the idea of introducing a retail CBDC, emphasising the need for a thorough assessment of its necessity and added value. The CNB believes that a CBDC should only be considered if it addresses a significant market failure, resolves a specific problem, or improves market efficiency in a way that the private sector cannot.

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.

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

As in most CEE countries, the payment card market is growing rapidly. The number of bank-issued payment cards rose from 13.77 million to 15.86 million between 2020 and 2024. Debit cards had reached 14.56 million while credit cards amounted to 1.24 million. In total, there was an average of 1.46 cards per capita.

According to SBK/CBA, there were 14.57 million contactless cards in circulation by end-2024, equivalent to 91.87% of the total bank card base. By 2021, 98% of Czech consumers had a contactless payment card, and 96% of the Czech population had used contactless payment, compared to 90% across Europe as a whole.

11 - Cards Issued in the Czech Republic
(000s)202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with ATM function13,646.314,234.913,567.914,676.715,616.6 16,237.1 6.40%21.51%3.97%
Cards with a payment function13,750.014,465.113,845.614,883.715,809.7 16,517.0 6.22%21.99%4.06%
- Cards with a debit function12,260.513,071.312,442.813,543.914,563.7 15,296.2 7.53%27.81%5.03%
- Cards with a delayed debit function3.73.33.33.43.4 3.2 0.00%-23.15%-5.13%
- Cards with a credit function1,493.01,397.61,400.51,337.51,245.3 1,217.6 -6.89%-20.40%-4.46%
- thereof chip cards (BCA)13,750.014,465.113,845.614,883.715,809.7 16,517.0 6.22%21.99%4.06%
Total cards issued13,778.214,480.513,870.914,909.415,868.2 16,517.0 6.43%22.21%4.09%
- thereof contactless cards12,924.913,486.113,601.714,515.814,578.5 14,704.3 0.43%20.12%3.74%
Payment cards per capita - Czechia1.291.381.291.371.461.546.26%19.68%3.66%
Payment cards per capita - EU27 total1.651.721.781.781.781.820.00%13.48%2.56%
Source: ECB, CNB.

Table 12 provides a breakdown of cards in issue, number, and value of transactions by card brand. According to SBK/CBA, there are 16.27 million cards, including 0 other cards with a payment function, of which 0 were Diners Club cards. VISA and Mastercard brands accounted for 100% of the total Czech cards market at end-2024, with Mastercard brands and VISA brands representing 47.64% and 52.36% respectively.

12 - Cards Issued by Card Type
Cards in issueNumber of payments
(000s)		Annual payments
per card		Value of payments (CZKm)Value of payments (€m)ATV
per card
(€)
Mastercard7,750,9941,287,486166.1773,05130,774.323.90
VISA8,519,5121,720,748202.01,011,52940,267.923.40
Diners Club00NA00.0NA
Others000.000.0NA
Total16,270,5062,008,234123.41,784,58171,042.235.38
Note: these Y2024 figures are for cards issued by SBK/BCA members and payments in Czech Republic and abroad.
Source: Czech Bank Card Association.

On average, cards issued by SBK/BCA members were used 123.4 times per year. The table captures the variation in card products by the different brands and sub-brands, with VISA cards used 202.0 times, Mastercard cards used 166.1 times and the ‘other’ category, representing programmes such as fuel cards, used 11.3 times annually. Diners Club cards, of which DC Bank CS is the main issuer, were used 79.1 times per year.

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 The Czech Republic.

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 increasing 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 methods such as 3D-Secure.

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.

The Czech Republic’s card fraud loss mix is different from European trends. Counterfeit fraud losses (23.9%) and CNP fraud losses (69.3%) rose from 2021. In 2022, card lost and stolen fraud losses made up 6.0% of total card fraud. Around 80% of the counterfeit was cross-border.

Fraud Losses: The total value lost to card fraud in the Czech Republic rose marginally by 0.21% in 2024, from CZK 135.8 million to CZK 136.1 million.​

According to the FICO European Fraud Map, the Czech Republic experienced no significant percentage change in card fraud between 2023 and 2024 (±0%), indicating a stable fraud environment relative to neighbouring countries, where losses rose more sharply.

13 - Card Fraud Losses on Czech Cards
(in CZKm)20182019202020212022GR 21/22GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Counterfeit cards36.834.633.733.132.5-1.78%-13.76%-2.92%
Card lost or stolen9.18.78.38.28.1-1.20%-14.72%-3.14%
ID fraud1.31.31.21.21.20.00%-7.69%-1.59%
Card not present fraud88.591.292.693.494.20.86%8.16%1.58%
other losses0.00.00.00.00.00.00%0.00%0.00%
Value of card fraud losses136.1136.2136.2136.2136.0-0.15%-0.15%-0.03%
Counterfeit fraud in %27.0%25.4%24.7%24.3%23.9%-1.64%-13.64%-2.89%
Card lost or stolen in %6.7%6.4%6.1%6.0%6.0%-1.06%-14.60%-3.11%
CNP fraud in %65.0%67.0%68.0%68.6%69.3%1.01%8.32%1.61%
Source: FICO, Euromonitor International.

According to ECB figures published in August 2020, the value of fraud as a share of transaction card fraud in the Czech Republic in 2018 was 0.010% and 0.07% by volume. According to ECB figures for H1 2023, the value of card fraud as a share of transaction value in Czech was 0.34% (EU/EEA average: 0.031%) and 0.006% (EU/EEA average: 0.015%) by volume. A significant update on Fraud numbers across Europe is expected from the ECB in 2026.

In 2018, acquirer card fraud losses by channel were composed of ATM fraud: 1%, POS fraud: 12% and CNP fraud: 87%.

In 2018, issuer card fraud losses in the Czech Republic by channel were composed of ATM fraud: 7%, POS fraud: 5% and CNP fraud: 88%.

As most POS transactions are authorised online-to-issuer, acquirer fraud rates in the Czech Republic are under control except for offline vending machines, e-commerce and other hotspots. Obviously, EMV implementation has contributed significantly to declining fraud rates.

Czech banks are pushing 3D-Secure, offer PIN-change services at ATMs and SMS notification to inform cardholders about the use of their credit card. The increasing numbers of chip technology cards, contactless cards and display cards have led to improved safety of payment transactions. Credit card fraud prevention measures taken have been pushing 3D-Secure, updating banks’ fraud prevention systems and real-time-scoring and implementing more rule-based fraud control mechanisms.

Card Use 

According to the ECB, card payments by number have shown a five-year growth rate of 18.56% and surpassed the number of cash withdrawals on cards for the first time in 2008. So far, delayed debit card use continued to be insignificant by number and value.

In 2024, cards accounted for 2,980.88 million payments (+15.17%) with a total value of CZK 1,791.20 billion (+13.15%) accounting for 188.5 payments per card per year (+8.42% vs 2023). The ATV per card payment was CZK 600.90 (€23.92). In the Czech Republic, 91.87% of all cards are contactless. The Czech Republic was a pioneer in the adoption of contactless payments in Europe since their introduction in 2011. In 2021, around 82% of Czech consumers made contactless payments at least once a week.

The use of contactless payment in public transit systems is a major driver of contactless growth. Major cities outside of the capital Prague have integrated contactless payments. VISA and Prague Public Transit collaborated to install contactless payment Prague terminals in one of the biggest contactless programmes in the Czech Republic.

Included in the card payments total in 2024 were 554.70 million remote payments on the internet (+27.84%) with a total value of CZK 580.23 billion (+27.79% vs 2023).

The use of Czech cards abroad accounted for a significant 930.99 million payments worth CZK 700.77 billion, accounting for 31.23% and 39.12% of the total card payments, respectively.

14 - Payments with Czech Cards
202020212022202320242024FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with a payment function13,749,96014,465,14413,845,59414,883,70615,809,73116,517,0286.22%21.99%4.06%
Ø payments per card per year106.3122.4160.6173.9188.5214.68.42%92.06%13.94%
Ø payment value (CZK) per card per year67,317.179,380.899,052.7106,358.8113,297.4127,289.96.52%81.82%12.70%
Payments (m)1,461.241,770.802,224.122,588.272,980.883,544.1815.17%134.29%18.56%
- thereof remote payments (m)223.48323.95337.99433.90554.70632.2827.84%243.20%27.97%
- thereof POS payments (m)1,237.761,446.851,886.132,154.372,426.182,911.9012.62%118.44%16.91%
- thereof cross-border payments (m)129.14168.42578.85761.86930.991,379.8722.20%615.27%48.22%
- with debit cards (m)1,340.861,643.362,097.632,452.332,828.953,386.2915.36%145.75%19.70%
- with delayed debit cards (m)0.210.190.110.120.070.06-41.67%-69.57%-21.17%
- with credit cards (m)120.38127.44126.49135.23151.07157.8911.71%24.70%4.51%
Value of payments (CZKbn)925.611,148.261,371.441,583.011,791.202,102.4513.15%121.80%17.27%
- thereof remote payments (CZK bn)212.68311.53308.28454.06580.23669.7627.79%283.76%30.86%
- thereof POS payments (CZK bn)712.93836.721,063.171,128.951,210.971,432.697.27%84.50%13.03%
- thereof cross-border payments (CZK bn)117.80176.20467.08584.74700.77987.3119.84%455.14%40.89%
- with debit cards (CZKbn)834.651,048.211,272.401,474.551,669.711,977.9913.23%133.30%18.46%
- with delayed debit cards (CZKbn)0.640.700.300.350.220.14-37.67%-81.11%-28.34%
- with credit cards (CZKbn)90.3299.3598.74104.42117.96124.3212.97%30.03%5.39%
ATV per card payment (CZK)633.44648.44616.62611.61600.90593.21-1.75%-5.33%-1.09%
Source: ECB, CNB.

Cash withdrawals – According to CNB, in 2024, there were 140.12 million cash withdrawals on Czech cards (-1.79%) giving on average 9.0 withdrawals per card per year (-7.70%). The total withdrawals value on cards was CZK 874.21 billion, up by 2.49% from 2023. The ATV per cash withdrawal accounted for CZK 6,239.16 equivalent to €248.37.

15 - Cash Withdrawals with Czech Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Cards with a cash function13,646,29414,234,92613,567,93014,676,66415,616,58016,237,0966.40%21.51%3.97%
Ø Cash withdrawals per card per year10.510.110.59.79.09.0-7.70%-35.45%-8.38%
Ø Total cash withdrawals value per card per year53,410.956,458.360,833.758,117.555,979.454,871.3-3.68%-10.68%-2.23%
Number of ATM cash withdrawals (m)143.20143.86142.69142.67140.12146.48-1.79%-21.56%-4.74%
- thereof withdrawals domestic (m)139.41139.07139.56139.46136.75143.05-1.94%-21.01%-4.61%
- thereof withdrawals abroad (m)3.794.793.123.223.373.444.79%-38.84%-9.37%
Value of ATM cash withdrawals (CZK bn)728.86803.68825.39852.97874.21890.952.49%8.53%1.65%
- thereof withdrawals domestic (CZK bn)708.70778.46807.98833.90852.57867.872.24%9.30%1.79%
- thereof withdrawals abroad (CZK bn)20.1625.2217.4119.0721.6323.0813.41%-14.86%-3.17%
ATV per cash withdrawal on cards (CZK)5,089.955,586.585,784.655,978.516,239.166,082.374.36%38.37%6.71%
Total cash withdrawals per capita13.413.713.313.112.913.7-1.95%-23.19%-5.14%
Total cash withdrawals value (CZK) per capita68,116.876,534.876,712.378,412.280,236.983,289.82.33%6.28%1.23%
Source: ECB, CNB.

Card Use Comparison – In 2024, card payments amounted to 95.5% of all transactions on Czech cards. Card payments by number are now 21.27-times higher than cash withdrawals.

However, the card payments value accounted only for 65.0% of the value of all transactions on cards. The indicator ‘payments:withdrawals’ was 2.05 at end-2024.

16 - Czech Card Payments and Withdrawals Compared
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Number of card payments (m) 1,461.2 1,770.8 2,224.1 2,588.3 2,980.9 15.17%134.29%18.56%
Number of withdrawals on cards (m)143.2143.9142.7142.7140.1-1.79%-21.56%-4.74%
Payments in % of all transactions91.1%92.5%94.0%94.8%95.5%0.78%8.92%1.72%
Indicator 'Payments:Withdrawals'10.2012.3115.5918.1421.2717.27%198.69%24.46%
Value of card payments (CZK bn)925.6 1,148.3 1,371.4 1,583.0 1,791.2 13.15%121.80%17.27%
Value of withdrawals on cards (CZK bn)728.9803.7825.4853.0874.22.49%8.53%1.65%
Payments value in % of all transactions55.9%58.8%62.4%65.0%67.2%3.41%34.23%6.06%
Indicator 'Payments:Withdrawals'1.271.431.661.862.0510.40%104.36%15.37%
Source: ECB, CNB.

Card Use per Capita

In 2024, card payments per capita were 273.5 (+14.98% vs 2023), up from 125.3 in 2020 (+18.06%). According to the ECB, there were 259.6 debit card payments per capita, 13.9 credit card payments per capita, and 12.9 cash withdrawals per capita.

17 - Card Payments Per Capita in the Czech Republic
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Debit card payments per capita125.3156.5195.0225.4259.615.17%140.65%19.20%
Debit card value per capita€0.0€3,893.2€4,813.9€5,647.1€6,100.78.03%133.26%18.46%
Delayed debit card payments per capita0.020.020.010.010.01-41.76%-70.20%-21.50%
Delayed debit card value per capita€2.2€2.6€1.1€1.4€0.8-40.53%-81.11%-28.35%
Credit card payments per capita0.012.111.812.413.911.54%22.12%4.08%
Credit card value per capita€0.0€369.0€373.6€399.9€431.07.78%30.00%5.39%
Total card payments per capita125.3168.6206.7237.9273.514.98%129.36%18.06%
Total card value per capita€2.2€4,264.8€5,188.6€6,048.4€6,532.58.00%121.35%17.22%
Source: ECB, Czech National Bank (CNB).

Debit Card Use 

Debit cards are the main payment instrument, accounting for 92.12% of the card base according to ECB/CNB figures, although credit cards have expanded in recent years.

Debit card use has grown rapidly. In 2024, there were 2,828.95 million debit card payments (+15.36%) with the total value CZK 1,669.71 billion (+13.23% vs 2023). The ATV per debit card payment accounted for CZK 590.22 (€23.50), and there were 194.2 payments per debit card per year.

18 - Payments with Czech Debit Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Debit Cards12,260,48513,071,34812,442,76813,543,94614,563,71515,296,2447.53%27.81%5.03%
Ø payments per debit card per year109.4125.7168.6181.1194.2221.47.28%92.28%13.97%
Ø payments value (CZK) per debit card per year68,076.780,191.5102,260.5108,871.6114,648.4129,312.25.31%82.54%12.79%
Payments (m) 1,340.86 1,643.36 2,097.63 2,452.33 2,828.95 3,386.2915.36%145.75%19.70%
Value of payments (CZKbn)834.65 1,048.21 1,272.40 1,474.55 1,669.71 1,977.9913.23%133.30%18.46%
ATV per debit card payment (CZK)622.47637.85606.59601.29590.22584.12-1.84%-5.06%-1.03%
Source: ECB, Czech National Bank (CNB).

Credit Card Use 

Credit card payments have also grown rapidly, though off a much smaller base. In 2024, there were 151.07 million credit card payments (+11.71%) with a total value of CZK 117.96 billion (+12.97% vs 2023). The ATV per credit card payment accounted for CZK 780.85 (€4.7), and there were 121.3 payments per credit card per year.

19 - Payments with Czech Credit Cards
202020212022202320242025FGR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Credit Cards1,493,0181,397,6311,400,5311,337,5031,245,3301,217,559-6.89%-20.40%-4.46%
Ø payments per credit card per year80.691.290.3101.1121.3129.719.98%56.66%9.39%
Ø payments value (CZK) per credit card per year60,493.671,081.070,505.178,071.894,723.7102,108.121.33%63.35%10.31%
Payments (m)120.38127.44126.49135.23151.07157.8911.71%24.70%4.51%
Value of payments (CZKbn)90.3299.3598.74104.42117.96124.3212.97%30.03%5.39%
ATV per credit card payment (CZK)750.29779.52780.65772.18780.85787.401.12%4.27%0.84%
Source: ECB, Czech National Bank (CNB).

E-Money Use

Important roles in Czech e-money services have been played by both private label cards and fleet cards (e.g. CCS cards) with prepaid function. Load/unload terminals were e. g. located at filling stations operated by CCS.

In 2014, there were 8.8 million e-money purchases (+3.0%) with the total value CZK 1.86 billion (+80.6% on 2013). The ATV per e-money purchase was CZK 211.12 (€7.67) and there were 0.84 e-money purchases per capita.

From 2015 e-money payment services offered by Czech e-money institutions include prepaid products and e-money cards giving access to e-money accounts. Therefore, figures up to 2014 can no longer be compared to figures from 2015.

In 2024, there were 6.10 million e-money purchases with the total value CZK 38.87 billion. The ATV per e-money purchase was CZK 6,372.13 and there were 0.56 e-money purchases per capita.

20 - E-Money in the Czech Republic
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
E-money institutions (EMIs)23443-25.00%200.00%24.57%
Outstanding value on e-money schemes (CZK m)738.0885.0885.0901.0910.01.00%110.16%16.01%
Number of e-money purchases (m)0.850.836.916.246.10-2.24%602.76%47.69%
Value of e-money purchases (CZK bn) 14.30 13.10 43.01 40.20 38.87 -3.31%146.01%19.73%
ATV per e-money purchase (CZK)16,823.53 15,783.13 6,220.42 6,442.31 6,372.13 -1.09%-64.99%-18.94%
Source: ECB, CNB.

Leading Card Issuer Details

Česká spořitelna (CS) claimed a market share of 24.65% in all active cards in circulation. CS reported 3.66 million active cards in circulation in 2023 compared with 3.38 million in 2022. Of those, 222,461 were credit cards, down from 392,000 in 2011. Debit cards offered include VISA Debit, Mastercard Maestro and and Debit Mastercard, along with a Mastercard World credit card. Since October 2011, CS issues all new and renewed cards with added contactless function.

In December 2020, the George Virtual Card product was introduced, allowing payments on the internet and at retail outlets and withdrawals from contactless ATMs, via Apple Pay, Google Pay, Garmin Pay or Fitbit Pay, without the need for a plastic card. Clients could arrange a George Virtual Card instantly through George mobile or internet banking. In 2023, clients set up 229,000 permanent George virtual cards. Since their launch in 2021, nearly 490,000 cards have been set up this way. Since 2022, Česká spořitelna has been offering One-Time Virtual Cards for secure payments on the internet. In 2024, clients used 1,123,000 one-time virtual cards. By 2024, the George virtual card allows payments on the internet and at retail outlets, as well as withdrawals from contactless ATMs, via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Garmin Pay, without the need for a plastic card. Clients can arrange a virtual George card instantly through George mobile or internet banking and in 2024, clients set up 216,000 permanent virtual George cards. Since their launch in 2021, nearly 706,000 cards have been set up in this way.

More than 600,000 CS clients used payments via smart devices with Apple Pay, Google Pay, Garmin Pay, or Fitbit Pay, representing a year-on-year increase of 54.6%. A total of 48% of the clients who use George in their mobiles have also added a card from Česká spořitelna to one of the mobile wallets – Apple Pay, Google Pay, Garmin Pay or Fitbit Pay. In 2022, more than 160,000 unique clients added a card to their mobile device.

In December 2020, CS launched the authentication of card payments on the internet via the George Key. In 2022, the George Key became the standard for confirming card payments online, and for the year as a whole, more than 85% of online card payments were verified by George Key (nearly 54 million payments). A major change in 2023 was the merger of the George app and George key to make it easier for clients to log in and send payments, as well as authenticate when they call a banker. By the end of the year, 1.9 million clients had been transferred from George key to George. The remaining clients were transferred in Q1 2024, when the George key application was discontinued.

CS’s payment card business grew significantly in 2022, driven mainly by the continued accelerated change in consumer behaviour caused by the pandemic. The annual volume of purchases made with payment cards significantly exceeded the volume of cash dispensed. By the end of 2022, 940,000 clients were registered in the Moneyback loyalty programme, representing an increase of more than 80% from 2021. From July 2020 when this programme that rewards card payments in outlets and over the internet was launched, clients received a total of CZK 0.5 billion in rewards. CS also noted substantial growth in the area of e-commerce, which increased by 36% from 2020 to 68 million card payments on the internet, with a total volume of CZK 63.7 billion.

The total volume of payments made with CS cards at retailers increased by 12.9% in 2024 to CZK 474.0 billion. The number of transactions using client cards copied the growth in payment volumes, growing by 15.7% year-on-year, to 828.0 million. In terms of cash, CS cards were used to make 64.3 million cash withdrawals in 2024, with a total volume of CZK 358.5 billion.

Together with its partner Global Payments and the Visa and Mastercard card associations, CS launched a new application making it possible to turn a mobile phone into a POS terminal for accepting payment cards. Czech retailers were the first in Central Europe to get this option

21 - Česká spořitelna - Key Figures
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Number of retail customers (000s)4,474.24,492.84,547.74,545.74,630.91.88%0.73%0.15%
Personal accounts (000s)2,819.32,981.43,108.83,182.73,309.84.00%19.89%3.69%
George (SERVIS 24) active users (000s)1,700.01,800.02,085.02,263.02,442.97.95%52.68%8.83%
Active cards (000s)2,988.93,145.73,387.53,668.24,036.510.04%38.27%6.69%
- of which credit cards (000s)167.7177.6180.7222.5235.15.67%37.49%6.58%
Branches424400398366337-7.92%-27.21%-6.16%
ATMs, deposit ATMs and transactional terminals1,8251,7831,7361,6801,611-4.11%-12.06%-2.54%
Withdrawals (m)64.863.470.667.664.3-4.88%-19.42%-4.23%
Withdrawals value (CZK bn)297.9318.3360.4355.9358.50.73%9.47%1.83%
Note: SERVIS 24 comprises telebanking, online banking, and mobile banking. It includes BUSINESS 24 for SMEs.
Note: in 2016, Česká spořitelna transferred its POS terminals and acquiring business to the JV Erste/Global Payments.
Source: Česká spořitelna (CS). In 2018, CS migrated all SERVIS 24 users to George, the Erste Bank digital platform.

ČSOB reported 3.115 million cards in circulation at end-2024 (2020: 2.6 million), of which around 250,000 were credit cards. ČSOB issues various contactless debit cards, including VISA Classic, Mastercard Standard, Debit Mastercard, VISA Electron and VISA Electron Baby for children. It also issues contactless Mastercard credit cards, and Mastercard-branded NFC stickers. From 2013, all ČSOB clients can use their payment cards, debit cards and credit cards at Czech Post outlets.

In 2017, the number of transactions with cards issued by ČSOB increased by 17.7% on 2016 (2015: 14.5%), of which the number of transactions at merchants increased by 22.9% (2016:19.4%). The transactions value on cards increased by 9.6% (2016: 8.0%), of which the transactions value at merchants increased by 20.1% (2016: 14.8%).

In 2009, ČSOB introduced 90-day purchase protection and a prolonged guarantee period on its credit cards. During 2007, a self-design ‘image’ card was announced, together with the red account and loyalty programme launched by Postal Savings Bank (PBS) for debit and credit card users. In 2018, credit card loans constituted just under 10% of ČSOB’s overall consumer credit portfolio, up just 0.5% since 2017. In 2019, ČSOB introduced Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Garmin Pay. By the end of the year, clients had tokenised over 94,000 cards in their mobile wallets.

Komerční banka (KB) offers VISA debit cards and credit cards and continues to develop its payment card programmes and related activities. KB issues all cards with an added contactless function.

With its 11.56% market share for card issuance, Komerční banka claimed the third position in the Czech payment cards market. The payments value on KB cards increased in 2024 by 8.72% from 2023.

KB reported that in 2024, the trend of overall growth in the number and volume of card transactions continued (number by 10%, volume by 9%). KB recorded larger gains in internet transactions, by 19% in number and 21% in volume. Transactions at brick-and-mortar establishments grew by 9% in number and almost 4% in volume. POS card transaction value increased by 15% and volume by 16%. Almost all these transactions were made in a contactless manner and the share of payments made by smartphones and watches increased to 47%, thus confirming again that contactless payments and mobile payments are extremely popular among KB’s clients. Apple Pay still has the largest share of these payments, at 53%, while Google Pay’s share is 43%. The number of online purchases was higher by 9%, while their volume was up by 16%. The number of cards virtualised into payment apps reached 390,000 in 2021. The average amount of a card transaction again diminished in 2023 slightly (by approximately 4%), but, on the other hand, this average grew by almost 18% for payments on the Internet.

In November 2022, KB switched to a new card management system and migrated to it some 2.4 million payments cards.

22 - Komerční Banka - Key Figures
20202021202220232024GR 23/24GR 5YCAGR 5Y
Number of customers (000s)1,641.01,625.01,652.01,664.01,727.03.79%3.79%0.75%
- thereof individual customers (000s)1,389.01,383.01,408.01,422.01,485.04.43%5.54%1.08%
- thereof internet banking users (000s)1,443.01,465.01,515.01,564.01,564.00.00%9.91%1.91%
- thereof mobile banking users (000s)932.01,034.01,145.01,283.01,283.00.00%63.23%10.30%
Active cards (000s)1,588.01,604.01,667.01,715.01,827.06.53%15.71%2.96%
- of which debit cards (000s)1,407.01,420.01,473.01,499.01,601.06.80%14.28%2.70%
- of which credit cards (000s)181.0184.0194.0215.0226.05.12%26.97%4.89%
Payments on KB cards (m)193.7229.6282.7322.6355.010.04%101.82%15.08%
Payments value on KB cards (CZK bn)136.0163.0199.0218.0237.08.72%88.10%13.47%
Branches242242218210204-2.86%-40.35%-9.82%
ATMs809860850796791-0.63%-0.63%-0.13%
- of which contactless3046046456886880.00%nana
Withdrawals (m)19.919.320.720.5200.00%-19.64%-4.28%
Withdrawals value (CZK bn)126.0132.0144.0144.01440.00%3.60%0.71%
Note: KB's online banking service, MojeBanka, comprises telebanking, online banking and mobile banking for individuals and business.
Note: in 2016, Komerční Banka transferred its POS terminals and acquiring business to the JV KB/Worldline, KB SmartPay.
Source: Komerční Banka (KB).

UniCredit Bank in The Czech Republic and Slovakia offers VISA Debit cards and credit cards (Mastercard, VISA). The bank is an active player in credit cards and has claimed a market share of around 20%. As well as a range of Mastercard and VISA credit cards, the bank has launched a number of VISA co-branded programmes. These include the VISA Axa credit card, provided to customers of Axa’s pension fund, and the VISA Generali with Generali insurance customers. In summer 2011, the bank launched a Miles & More Mastercard World credit card. All new cards issued are contactless cards. In 2019 the bank introduced Apple Pay and Google Pay mobile payments for VISA and Mastercard payment cards. In 2020, UniCredit entered into a strategic agreement with VISA and reissued most of its card portfolio under the VISA brand. In November 2021, in cooperation with VISA, UniCredit launched a new UniCredit SoftPOS app for SME clients.

Raiffeisenbank – It issues Debit Mastercard and Mastercard credit cards. Its co-branded cards include a Vodafone Mastercard card. In September 2015, Raiffeisen absorbed the Czech card portfolios of Citibank Europe. All new cards issued are contactless cards. Raiffeisen’s RaiPay mobile wallet was launched in October 2019.

During 2021, Raiffeisenbank introduced a discount programme for all clients who use the bank’s debit or credit cards, offering discounts at more than 1,900 banking partners from various areas.

Raiffeisen claimed to be the only bank in the Czech Republic allowing clients to pay with NFC technology on mobile phones from Huawei using its RaiPay payment wallet. The RaiPay version is available on the Huawei App Gallery, and thousands of clients have downloaded the app to date.

MONETA Money Bank (MMB) – As at end-2014, GE Money Bank reported 1,028,355 cards. Its debit cards were Maestro and Debit Mastercard branded. The two credit card offerings, Credit Card bene+ and Credit Card MoneyCard were Mastercard branded. Originally, as GE Money, GE acquired the local Multiservis leasing company and issued proprietary OK Karta credit cards. Since September 2012, GE Money Bank issued all debit cards – Mastercard Standard, Gold and credit cards, MoneyCard Plus and MoneyCard Gold – with PayPass contactless technology (70,000 cards issued in three months). From January 2013, it also issued PayPass NFC stickers (2013: 19,688) and debit or credit cards stored in NFC capable mobile phones. As of 2019, Moneta issues VISA and Mastercard debit and credit cards. All new cards issued are contactless cards. At the end of 2019, 126,000 cards issued by the bank were linked to Apple Pay and Google Pay, representing a 297.5% annual increase. Google Pay and Apple Pay transactions numbered almost 7.4 million in 2019, up more than five times from the previous year.

Expobank (formerly LBBW Bank CZ) and J&T Banka issue Mastercard cards in The Czech Republic while ING Bank issues VISA cards. In partnership with American Express (UK), in 2016, J&T Banka offered American Express cards in foreign currency denomination, including the ultra-premium “Amex Centurion” product. All new cards issued are contactless cards.

Sberbank CZ (previously Volksbank CZ) issues VISA and Mastercard debit and credit cards. All new cards issued are contactless cards.

Consumer Finance Credit Card Issuers

Though the bank credit card market is growing steadily, non-bank retail and proprietary private label cards initially led the way. Czech BNP Paribas Personal Finance (brand: Cetelem), which issues its proprietary Aura card and Mastercard cards in the Czech Republic, claims market leadership and has a partnership with Carrefour. In May 2017, Czech BNP Paribas Personal Finance announced its re-branding. The new brand Hello bank! has replaced the Cetelem trademark.

The main local player is Czech-based PPF Group’s Home Credit, which is one of the top three non-banking consumer finance providers. Others include ESSOX Consumer Finance owned by Komerční Banka. In October 2018, Moneta Money Bank attempted to acquire the Czech and Slovak business of consumer finance house Home Credit, although this deal fell through in February 2019 on the basis of an unsatisfactory valuation of Home Credit’s business.

Sofinco (Crédit Agricole), Société Générale, and Santander Consumer Finance are also present in the Czech consumer finance market.

Appendix

Significant Events in Czech Banking

The Czech market is dominated by foreign banks following a consolidation process in the last decade. Some significant events in the Czech banking market are listed below:

January 2022 Raiffeisenbank acquires Equa Bank.
October 2020 České spořitelna acquires Czech branch of Waldviertler Sparkasse Bank AG.
April 2020 Moneta Money Bank acquires Wüstenrot Hypoteční Banka

Source: Yearbooks research.

Central Credit Register (CCR)

The Central Credit Register (CCR) is an information system administered by CNB, the central bank, since 2002 which enables banks and foreign bank branches operating in The Czech Republic to share information on credit commitments made by individuals and payment discipline of businesses. All banks have access and are required to update their data supplied to the CCR on a monthly basis.

From 2015, the Central Credit Register (CCR) is administered by the Micro Data Statistics Unit.

Digital & Card Payment Yearbooks