👀 Everything you wanted to know about payment trends in Portugal🇵🇹 but were reluctant to ask

👀 Everything you wanted to know about payment trends in Portugal🇵🇹 but were reluctant to ask

Although the country has traditionally maintained conservative financial habits, for example, Portuguese consumers use debit cards more than credit cards, it has rapidly adopted innovations in real-time mobile payments. Below are some relevant facts and figures:

🤩 Portugal has one of the highest levels of banking adoption in Europe. In terms of payment cards, the average exceeds two cards per person.

🤩 The pandemic accelerated the digital transition. This currently means:

🤩 Internet usage: ~89%

🤩 Smartphone usage: >90%

🤩 E-commerce adoption: around 76% of internet users shop online

🤩 Rapid innovation adoption—especially visible compared with other Southern European countries, is explained by the high level of trust in local institutions and centralized payment infrastructures. A key example is SIBS, operator of Multibanco and MB Way.

🤩 Regarding Multibanco: this is a Portuguese interbank network launched in the 1980s and now considered a cornerstone of the national payments infrastructure. It connects nearly all retail banks and, beyond cash withdrawals, supports more than 60 functions, including bill payments, mobile top-ups, public services (taxes, fines), P2P transfers, public transport tickets, donations, and direct debits. In 2023, the network recorded a historic peak of 365 transactions per second.

🤩 One of the leading B2C services remains Multibanco Reference (Referência Multibanco), widely used in e-commerce by small and medium-sized businesses.

🤩 Another major player is MB Way, launched by SIBS in 2014. It enables P2P payments via phone number, onlineand in-store purchases using QR codes or NFC, cash withdrawals without a physical card, as well as bill splitting and money requests.

🤩 In 2024, MB Way overtook Multibanco Reference and became the most popular online payment method in Portugal.

🤩 Apple Pay and Google Pay continue gaining traction, especially among tech-oriented users and in major cities such as Lisbon and Porto.

🤩 Around 46% of Portuguese shoppers identify PayPal as one of their preferred options for online shoppingpayments.

🤩 Despite conservative habits and a preference for debit cards, BNPL (“Buy Now, Pay Later”) continues to expand. According to Klarna, in less than four years it reached around 700,000 consumers and 6,000 partner brands.

🤩 Regulatory framework: Portugal’s payment environment is governed by EU regulation, particularly PSD2. Supervision is carried out by the Bank of Portugal (Banco de Portugal). EU passporting rules allow foreign players to enter the market without an additional local license, facilitating new market entry. For example, Revolut operates as a bank using its Lithuanian license.

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