Penetration rate of online banking in Portugal 2012-2023
In Portugal, online banking has dramatically increased during recent years. Its penetration rate went from 25 percent registered in 2012 to almost 59 percent recorded in 2023. Despite a fluctuation in 2013, the penetration of online banking has been growing steadily. The most intense increase occurred in 2018 when online banking users went from 31 percent of respondents in the previous year to almost 39 percent.
Digital banking is on the rise in Portugal
Traditional approaches to banking are currently challenged by digital forms of dealing with financial matters. Apart from financial transactions through the internet, conducting banking affairs using a mobile device, such as a smartphone or a tablet, has become very popular in Portugal, with 67 percent of people using this service in 2024. Mobile banking has been incentivized by the advent of MB Way, a service that uses mobile phone numbers to make transactions, and whose users have been growing recently. Another factor fostering the growth of online banking in Portugal is the growth of neobanking users, which were forecast to be more than 1.7 million by 2024.
Digital payments are preferred in Portugal
Almost half of the Portuguese stated in 2024 that they could imagine themselves dealing with financial transactions exclusively via their smartphone, while a slightly smaller share of people stated the same for online banking. The adherence of consumers in Portugal to online forms of banking is attested by their payment preferences. In 2023, the majority of people in the country preferred digital forms of payment even for in-store purchases, with only 23 percent of the population favoring cash payments in physical stores.
