While these instruments continue to play an important role, most payments these days are made using electronic debit, credit and payment cards. Figure 1. highlights the steady growth in cards transactions that has continued unabated over the past 10 years. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Figure 1 Retail transactions in New Zealand (monthly)  Source: Statistics New Zealand.
Looking forward, the new growth areas in retail payments are contactless payments, mobile phone based applications and on-line payments. These innovations reflect technological advances in IT and telecommunications and ever-rising customer expectations. Payers and payees are demanding payment services that are convenient, reliable and secure. Increasingly, people also want the funds cleared from their transactions quickly, preferably in real time.