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Retail Payments
Next to notes and coins, the most used payment instruments in Luxembourg are payment cards, credit transfers and direct debits.
Until 6 October 2006, LIPS-Net (Luxembourg Interbank Payment System – Netting System) was the national compensation system for domestic cheques and credit transfers. The system started in 1994 as the substitute for a manual clearing house.
The volume of cheque transactions has been on the decline over the past years. Since 1 July 2006, banks in Luxembourg settle cheques bilaterally.
Domestic and cross-border credit transfers and standing orders are processed in the pan-European system (e.g. STEP2, Equens) since 9 October 2006.
Since 01 January 2012, V Pay replaces the domestic debit card scheme Bancomat2 .
These changes occur within the framework of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
The financial institutions in Luxembourg issue mainly Visa and MasterCard co-branded credit cards.
Until the European direct debit (SEPA Direct Debit) takes off, direct debits are domestic payments that are cleared either internally, via the DOM-Electronique system or bilaterally between banks.
The domestic electronic money scheme, MiniCash, started its operations in 1999 and stopped its activities on 31 October 2011.
The law of 10 November 2009, transposing in particular the directive 2007/64/EC of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the internal market, brings significant changes in the field of payments in Luxembourg.
- Statistical data on transaction volumes and values of former LIPS-Net system
- Statistical data on payment instrument use in Luxembourg
2 Bancomat cards were co-branded with Maestro to enable the cross-border use of the card.
