Amsterdam, 13 December 2007. The one-and-a-half billionth debit card (PIN) transaction was made at the Easy Bite lunch-room in Utrecht today. Never before have so many transactions been performed by debit card in a calendar year. This year, to the end of November, the number of debit card transactions has grown by 9.5% compared with the same period last year, making the increase even greater than in 2006 compared with 2005 (8.8%).

Consumers are using debit cards more often and in all sectors. The use of debit cards has increased more than average (about 12%) in the past year in the hospitality industry, which is why the record transaction was made in such a business. The increase is thanks mainly to growth in the number of portable and fixed payment terminals in this sector. Consumers are also using their debit cards more often for smaller amounts.

“This fits in well with our aim of more electronic payments”, said Bob Goulooze of Currence, the owner of PIN. “Our ‘Small amount? You can PIN!’ campaign is beginning to bear fruit. But we still have a long way to go. Our target is a billion extra debit card transactions in the next few years. This will be done by replacing cash payments by debit card payments. This will allow us to reduce the social cost of payments and increase the safety of retailers and consumers.”