WASHINGTON — Credit and debit cards now account for more than two-thirds of all noncash payments, according to the just-released 2013 Federal Reserve Payments Study.
The report, conducted triennially, also shows the number of checks paid continues to decline, falling to 18.3 billion, less than half the number from a decade earlier (37.3 billion).
Noncash payments, excluding wire transfers, grew to 122.8 billion, a growth rate of 4.4% annually from 2009 to 2012. The rate of growth was down slightly from the previous 10-year (2003-2012) growth rate of 4.7%.
The total value of noncash payments grew from $72.2 trillion in 2009 to just under $79 trillion in 2012.
The number of credit card payments, which had shown a decline in the 2010 study, grew at an annual rate of 7.6% from 2009 to 2012. Debit card payments grew at a rate of 7.7% over that same period.
ACH growth slowed to 5.1% annually from 2009 to 2012, down from the average annual growth of 10.9% over the previous 10 years.
