Paris (AFP)

The year 2020, marked in particular by long weeks of confinement, resulted in France by an acceleration in the use of dematerialized means of payment, with in particular a "spectacular" increase in contactless, said Tuesday the Bank of France.

"The confinement was an accelerator of trends which pre-existed in the change of the payment habits of the French", declared François Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the institution, on the occasion of a press conference presenting the last one. report of the Observatory for the security of means of payment.

More precisely, "the confinement has stimulated the use of dematerialized" and digital payment methods, as opposed to "physical" means of payment such as payment by card in contact mode, checks, tickets or coins.

The volume of dematerialized and digital means thus swelled during confinement to represent up to two thirds of payment transactions, excluding the use of cash.

After deconfinement, it fell to around 60%, which is more than the 50% share measured by the Banque de France in 2018.

"During the confinement, distance selling increased very strongly. After the confinement, (...) distance selling tended to return to its previous level, on the other hand the increase in the mode (of payment by card) without contact, with the increase from 30 to 50 euros, is spectacular ", underlined Mr. Villeroy de Galhau.

And while stressing that it is still too early to draw up a definitive assessment of this trend, "it does not bring back to us today on the part of banking networks or associations of traders the feeling of an increase in fraud" , he congratulated himself.

More generally, the governor drew up a detailed assessment of the security of means of payment and fraud in France in 2019.

Last year, "the level of fraud observed on payments issued in France remained under control on all payment instruments, with the exception of checks," explains the Banque de France.

In particular, "while the card remains by far the most widely used cashless payment method and accounts for 60% of the number of cashless transactions, its fraud rate remains stable and close to its historic lowest level, at 0.064%", underlines the institution.

© 2020 AFP