Spain

Cash is still the main in-store method for most Spaniards, although its lead is shrinking. The Banco de España’s 2025 study on cash use habits found that 57% of consumers used cash as their main way to pay in physical shops (59% in 2024), 27% a bank card (30%) and 15% a mobile device (11%). The ECB’s 2024 SPACE survey put cash at 57% of point-of-sale transactions by number and 45% by value, with cards at 32% and 37%. Acceptance is broad: cards are accepted by 94% of small shops and hospitality businesses and mobile payments by 88%. Bizum has also started in-store NFC payments.

Data from the competition authority CNMC show e-commerce turnover of €114.8 billion in 2025, up about 21% on 2024. More than half (€63.7 billion) was spending from Spain on foreign websites, overwhelmingly in other EU countries, while purchases within Spain were €36.0 billion and purchases from abroad on Spanish websites €15.1 billion. Merchants based elsewhere in the EU therefore already capture a large share of Spanish online spending. Bizum is also becoming cross-border: since April 2025 its users can exchange payments with Bancomat Pay users in Italy and MB WAY users in Portugal through the EuroPA alliance, which is working with EPI, the company behind Wero, on a hub model to connect their systems.

The Banco de España supervises banks, payment institutions, electronic money institutions and account information service providers, and payment firms authorised elsewhere in the EEA can passport in. PSD2 strong customer authentication applies to online card and account payments. Law 11/2021 on preventing tax fraud cut the cash payment limit to €1,000 for transactions in which a business or professional is involved, with a €10,000 limit for private individuals whose tax residence is outside Spain, so higher-value sales must be settled electronically. Bizum is offered through participating banks, and merchants are onboarded for Bizum acceptance through those banks.

The World Bank Global Findex 2025 found that 98% of Spanish adults had an account in 2024, though only 86% owned a debit card. The Banco de España’s 2025 study found cash is still a habit, especially for people over 54 and those with basic education; ATMs are the main source of cash for almost 80% of people. Bizum had more than 30.6 million users in 2025, and 37% of people use it as their usual method for paying friends and family, against 57% for cash.