Systems Over Signals
ProjectsPayments in NumbersReal-time paymentsChart story28 October 2026

Thin card use left room for instant payments. Only some systems used it.

Germany and Italy had fewer card payments per person than Brazil, and instant payments stayed under 1%.

Card use before and instant share afterScatter of 16 economies. The four with instant share above 35 percent (India, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico) all had under about 100 card payments per person in 2019. Germany and Italy also had few card payments yet instant share stays under 1 percent.0%25%50%75%100%10301003001000Card payments per person in 2019, before the newest systems scaled (log scale)Instant payments as a share of all cashless payments, 2024Germany: 76 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 0.9% in 2024GermanyBrazil: 101 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 44.1% in 2024BrazilMexico: 36 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 37.9% in 2024MexicoAustralia: 415 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 7.9% in 2024AustraliaSweden: 360 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 13.9% in 2024SwedenIndia: 9 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 85.5% in 2024IndiaArgentina: 49 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 56.8% in 2024ArgentinaItaly: 79 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 0.8% in 2024ItalyKorea: 457 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 22.0% in 2024KoreaFrance: 218 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 1.8% in 2024FranceTürkiye: 79 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 19.6% in 2024TürkiyeChina: 113 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 2.9% in 2024ChinaSingapore: 804 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 10.1% in 2024SingaporeSpain: 118 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 5.0% in 2024SpainUnited Kingdom: 338 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 10.8% in 2024United KingdomUnited States: 386 card payments per person in 2019; instant share 0.2% in 2024United States
Card and e-money payments per person in 2019 (log scale) against instant payments as a share of all cashless payments in 2024. BIS CPMI cashless statistics. Economies with an instant share above 35% in teal.
Evidence grade: A for the data; B for the design facts, pending primary citations

India entered 2019 with nine card payments per person. By 2024 instant payments made up 85.5% of its cashless transactions. Argentina (49 card payments per person in 2019) and Brazil (101) reached 57% and 44%, and Mexico (36) reached 38%. In the card-heavy economies of the United States, Australia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, the instant share stayed at 11% or below.

Germany and Italy had fewer card payments per person in 2019 than Brazil, at 76 and 79, and instant payments there remained below 1% of cashless volume in 2024. The systems that filled the room are the ones built for paying a shop from a phone: Pix with QR codes from launch day, UPI with merchant QR from 2017, PromptPay with a national QR standard from 2017. Until 2025 SEPA Instant was a bank transfer inside a banking app, optional for banks to offer and priced by each bank.

Across the 16 economies the rank correlation between 2019 card use and 2024 instant share is weak, at about minus 0.35. Card use alone predicts little; the design of the instant system carries the rest of the explanation.