The Maltese are still very fond of cash, and use it for 88 per cent of their payments, with credit cards and debit cards only taking up 4.0 per cent each – although cash tended to be used for lower value payments.

The Maltese keep between €20 and €50 in cash for daily purposes, with only 1.8 per cent reporting that they do not carry any cash around with them at all.

A survey by the Central Bank of Malta calculated that based on the amount of cash held and the amount of transactions, around €15 million of transactions every day were being made in cash.

Cash was even the preferred method of payment for consumer goods like white goods, cars, electronics and furniture: 62 per cent paid in cash, with debit cards next (13.6 per cent) then credit cards (9.7 per cent), cheques (5.3 per cent) and internet banking (4.5 per cent).

Source: World Payments Report

The CBM survey also found that while cash was used for 88 per cent of transactions, it accounted for 54 per cent of the overall amount. For higher value transactions, internet banking was a clear favourite. At 17 per cent, it ranked second as a percentage of total transactions in terms of value, but only 1.3 per cent of the volume.

Cheques accounting for less than 2.0 per cent of the volume of transactions but 12 per cent of the value. The mean value of cheque payments was €81.

The payment method that seems to be making least headway is direct debits, which only accounts for 7.0 per cent of the value of transactions.

The CBM also asked respondents how they saw their preferences for payment methods to change over the coming five years, with internet banking having the greatest prospect for growth.

Around a quarter of respondents said they would use more, although almost as many also said they would use more debit and credit cards.

Yet again, direct debits do not seem to be making inroads, with minimal interest expressed even in the coming five years.

The CBM and other stakeholders have been trying to move people away from traditional payment methods – particularly cheques with their high costs for banks – to more innovative and efficient ones.

Cheque usage is declining around the world, and contracted by 9.6 per cent in 2012 to reach 28.1 billion transactions. Europe has seen even greater declines over the years, and in 2012, only 4.8 per cent of non-cash transactions were by cheque (compared with 8 per cent in 2008), although it remains a popular payment method in the US, which account for almost two-thirds of the world’s transactions.

According to the World Payments Report, global debit card transactions grew by 13.4 per cent in 2012, compared to a year earlier, while credit card use rose by 9.9 per cent.

Debit and credit cards accounted for 60.9 per cent of all non-cash transactions.

The European Central Bank had figures for 2013 for the EU alone, with card payments accounting for 44 per cent of all transactions, and cheque use declining steadily.