Belgium

Belgium uses less cash at the till than most of the euro area. The ECB’s SPACE study, reported by the National Bank of Belgium, found cash was used for 39% of point-of-sale payments in 2024, down from nearly 45% in 2022, while cards accounted for 53% and mobile apps 3%. Bancontact recorded 1.9 billion in-store card payments in 2024, 1.35 billion of them contactless. QR code payments with the Bancontact app (Payconiq by Bancontact, renamed Bancontact Pay in 2026) are common at smaller merchants, and the new QR stickers rolled out in 2026 are designed to accept Wero payments progressively. Access to cash is a recognised concern.

Belgians spent €18.3 billion online in 2025, up 5.4% on 2024, according to the e-commerce federation Becom, and more than nine in ten made at least one online purchase. Clothing and footwear (€2.7 billion) and electronics (€1.7 billion) were the largest categories. Revenue at Belgian online retailers grew only 3.43%, so foreign webshops and marketplaces are taking a growing share of spending. Belgium has three official languages, and Dutch and French versions of a shop are normally expected. With nine in ten Bancontact online payments made on a phone, a mobile-first checkout matters.

The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) licenses and supervises payment and e-money institutions and oversees payment systems; Bancontact Company is itself a payment institution supervised by the NBB. PSD2 applies, so strong customer authentication is required for most online payments. The FPS Economy enforces the payment rules in the Code of Economic Law: since 1 July 2022, every business selling to consumers must offer at least one electronic payment method, and businesses may not refuse cash from consumers paying in person, subject to limited exceptions. Online gambling requires a licence from the Belgian Gaming Commission.

Belgium is close to universal banking. The World Bank’s Global Findex 2025 (2024 survey data) put account ownership at 98% of adults and debit card ownership at 96%. The 2025 Digital Payments Barometer found that 84% of Belgians prefer digital payments to cash. Cash access is the main inclusion issue: the NBB reported that 23% of Belgians found it difficult or very difficult to obtain cash in 2024, against a euro-area average of 13%.