The online payment service provider belongs to the German savings banks, the cooperative banks, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt The German banks have fallen far short of the original ambitions for their own online payment service, Paydirekt. Paydirekt, launched in 2015, only plays a minor role as a payment option in e-commerce. The weak performance is now underlined for the first time by usage figures, which Paydirekt surprisingly published.
In 2021, i.e. after the merger with the former competitor Giropay, Paydirekt processed 17.8 million transactions. The transaction volume was a good 1.5 billion euros.
This emerges from Paydirekt’s annual financial statements, which were published in the Federal Gazette last week. So far, the numbers were considered a well-kept secret of the banking industry.
Most of the payments are likely to have gone through Giropay. The online payment method, which started in 2015 and now belongs to Paydirekt, processed one million transactions a month two years ago, as stated at the time.
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In 2020, Paydirekt, at that time without the Giropay reinforcement, only made 3.3 million payments. According to the annual financial statements, the transaction volume was almost 290 million euros.
This is minimal given the turnover in German online retail. According to the HDE trade association, it was almost 73 billion euros net in 2020 and almost 87 billion euros in 2021. In addition, the ticket sales of Deutsche Bahn, for example, an important Paydirekt customer, are not included in the HDE figures.
Paydirekt still sees the business positively. On request, the company stated that it was “very satisfied” with the development, especially with the growth in the past year.
PayPal and purchase on account are the most popular
While the German credit institutions offer the most important payment card in Germany with the Girocard, often also called “EC card”, and earn money on every Girocard transaction, online trading largely bypasses them. According to a survey by the EHI Retail Institute, a retail research institute, the US online payment service Paypal is now on a par with the purchase on account that is traditional in Germany.
They each have a sales share of a good 28 percent when making payments in e-commerce. The banks earn nothing from both payment methods.
The third most popular option is paying by direct debit with a share of 17 percent – thanks largely to the online retailer Amazon. Here, too, nothing sticks with the banks.
The EHI puts the share of credit card payments at a good eleven percent. In other countries, credit cards play a much larger role in online shopping. Paydirekt and Giropay do not appear separately in the EHI overview.
Paydirekt and Giropay merged at the end of 2020. The payment method is now only called Giropay, the company behind it is called Paydirekt. Giropay was founded in 2005.
From the start of Paydirekt seven years ago, the financial institutions had expected more power. Paydirekt is owned by the German savings banks, the cooperative banks, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. With a marketing campaign, the payment service wants to further increase Giropay’s brand awareness “and strengthen growth,” according to the company.
In 2021, Paydirekt reported an annual surplus of almost one million euros. In view of planned investments, the company expects a deficit of almost six million euros this year and a minus of four million euros in 2023.
The fact that Paydirekt is now naming transaction numbers in the annual financial statements for the first time has regulatory reasons. “We are thus complying with regulatory requirements,” the company said.
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