The New Zealand card payments market is forecast to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.8% between 2025 and 2029 to reach NZD118.3 billion ($71.6 billion) in 2029, supported by a constant consumer shift towards electronic payments, according to GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform.

GlobalData’s Payment Cards Analytics reveals that that during the 2020-2025 period, card payments rebounded after the 2020 decline. Across 2020-2024, the total card payments expanded at a CAGR of 4.0%, refelcting resilient recovery and sustained expansion in a market that remains cash-inclined.

Ravi Sharma, Lead Banking and Payments Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “New Zealand is gradually moving towards the digitalization of its payment infrastructure, supported by a fully banked adult population, mature payment card market, and the expansion of POS infrastructure. Increasing preference for cashless payments, the growth of the ecommerce market, and the adoption of contactless payment methods also contributed to this growth.”

Debit card payments hold a significant share of the total card payments market in New Zealand, accounting for 48.9% in total payment value in 2025. The government and commercial banks have taken steps to promote financial inclusion and drive debit card penetration, such as offering low-cost bank accounts and reducing merchant interchange fees.

Although credit and charge cards account for a limited proportion of cards in circulation, they accounted for 51.1% share in 2024. This can be attributed to the value-added benefits offered by banks, such as reward points, discounts on purchases, and annual fee waivers.

New Zealand boasts a mature payments infrastructure, with one of the strong POS terminal uptakes. Local scheme provider EFTPOS NZ is the key driver behind this. Over 70,000 businesses and more than 113,000 devices and websites are connected to its network. The uptick in payment acceptance is also driven by the availability of mobile POS solutions. For example, EFTPOS offers Android-based terminals that accept both contactless and chip and PIN-based cards, as well as mobile payments.

To reduce the dependence on cash and promote card payments, Payments NZ has introduced various measures as part of its Payments Modernisation Plan 2030. These measures include improving financial inclusion, promoting acceptance of card payments by merchants, and supporting competition and innovation in the payments space, thereby benefiting overall card payments market.

Sharma concludes: “The forecast for the growth of total card payments in New Zealand is promising. This growth can be attributed to the gradual shift from cash to debit cards for low-value transactions amid the rising preference for contactless payments. Overall, payment cards are mostly used at the POS (rather than for ATM cash withdrawals) due to the ongoing consumer shift towards electronic payments.”