Top 5 Findings from the 2024 Debit Issuer Study

Svetla Pavlova

Five key data points shed light on the performance of financial institutions’ debit programs in 2023, as well as on consumers’ growing adoption of debit for digital commerce. Steve Sievert, PULSE^® Executive Vice President of Marketing and Brand Management, took a deep dive into these and other results from the 2024 PULSE Debit Issuer Study in a recent webinar.

The five findings below illustrate debit’s escalating importance to account holders, as well as continuing shifts in debit-usage patterns.

	Account penetration with debit cards reached 80.5% in 2023. Issuers have experienced an average 0.6%/year increase in penetration rates since 2018. And two-thirds of debit cards are now used to make a purchase in any given month.
	The average active cardholder performed 34.6 transactions/month. This is a sizeable increase over the 31 monthly transactions per active card seen in the 2023 study. Point-of-sale transactions accounted for 89% of debit use, account-to-account transfers for 6%, and ATM use for 5%.
	Card-not-present (CNP) transactions accounted for more than one-third of debit transactions and nearly half of debit spend. CNP debit use – including online shopping, bill payments, subscriptions, and embedded payments - represented 36% of debit transactions and 45% of debit spend in 2023.
	The average ticket for CNP transactions was $60.81. This compares to $46.89 for debit overall. The CNP average ticket increased 2.8% over the prior year and is rising faster than other transaction types.
	Mobile devices accounted for 7% of debit POS transactions. This includes both CNP and in-store usage, with phones and wearables now accounting for 15% of in-store contactless purchases.

Sievert also addressed competitive and regulatory pressures that issuers are facing, and the strategic investments they are making in debit. Watch the webinar to learn more about the study findings.