Study into costs and revenues of Dutch payment services in 2021

In October 2022, the Dutch Payments Association presented the “Study into the costs and revenues of payment services for financial institutions 2021” to its members and stakeholders. This report provides a fair picture of the banking costs and revenues associated with payment services in the Netherlands, for the first time since 2006.

The Dutch payment system is very efficient and the user fees are much lower than on average in Europe. The transaction volume has more than doubled compared to 2005, while processing fees have only increased by 5%. Nevertheless, banks suffered a combined loss of €570 million on our payment system in 2021. The loss in 2005 was €23 million. The loss in 2021 is mainly caused by a drop in net interest revenues on the one hand and by an increase in risk management and compliance costs on the other hand. The Payments Association and its members want to engage an open dialogue with everyone involved, in order to determine how the high-quality security, efficiency, reliability, accessibility and inclusiveness of our payment system can be funded future-proof.