Doha, Qatar: Qatar witnessed a total value of transactions across various payment systems worth QR150.910bn with total number of transactions reaching 70.964 million in March 2026.
The recent data from the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) highlights notable shifts in the country’s payment ecosystem, with strong growth in overall transaction activity and evolving patterns in card usage.
In a post on its X platform yesterday, QCB stated that the total payment system transactions reached 70.964 million in March 2026, representing a 23% increase compared to 57.930 million in March 2025. This growth reflects rising adoption of digital payment channels and increased economic activity.
The card payment systems continued to dominate transaction volume, accounting for 87.2% of total transactions, although this marks a slight decline from 94.2% the previous year. In contrast, transfer payment systems expanded their share to 12.8%, indicating growing reliance on account-to-account transfers and digital banking solutions.
In terms of value, the payment system recorded a substantial surge, more than doubling from QR66.098bn in March 2025 to QR150.910bn in March 2026 showing a 128% increase. Transfer payment systems were the primary driver of this growth, comprising 83.6% of total transaction value, up from 61.7% the previous year.
Meanwhile, card payments represented a smaller share of total value at 16.4%, suggesting that while cards are widely used, higher-value transactions are increasingly processed through transfer systems.
The data also highlighted the card payment statistics which shows continued growth in usage. Total card transactions reached 61.868 million, with a combined value of QR24.767bn in March this year.
The point-of-sale (POS) transactions remained the dominant channel, increasing from 38.826 million in March 2025 to 42.639 million in March 2026. Online (e-commerce) transactions also saw significant growth, rising from 9.555 million to 13.490 million in the review period, reflecting the continued expansion of digital commerce.
Meanwhile the ATM transactions, however, declined slightly from 6.175 million to 5.739 million in March this year.
Despite increased transaction volume, the total value of card payments experienced a modest 2% decline overall. While ATM-related transaction values rose slightly, both POS and online transaction values showed minor decrease.
The overall, the data indicates a maturing payment landscape characterized by strong digital adoption, a shift toward transfer-based high-value transactions, and sustained reliance on card payments for everyday spending. These trends underscore ongoing digital transformation within Qatar’s financial system.
QCB data further highlighted a significant expansion in instant transfer services through Qatar Mobile Payment (QMP), reflecting accelerating adoption of digital wallet-based transactions and real-time payment solutions.
In March 2026, total transaction value processed through instant transfer systems reached QR488.645m, representing a sharp increase of 124% compared to QR218.013m in March 2025. This substantial growth indicates rising consumer and business confidence in instant, cashless payment methods, as well as broader integration of mobile payment platforms into daily financial activity.
Transaction volume also showed strong upward momentum, increasing from 251,079 transactions in March 2025 to 693,350 in March 2026, an increase of 176%.
The ecosystem supporting these transactions also expanded considerably. The number of total registered wallets reached 1.367 million in March 2026, demonstrating growing user adoption and deeper penetration of digital payment infrastructure across the population.
The data also revealed that the instant payment system – Fawran service saw 3.765 million registered accounts with the total value of QR5.895bn and volume of 3.478 million transactions in March 2026.
It further indicated growth in Tahweel system (transfer between bank accounts) which witnessed a 212% and 189% surge in value and volume respectively reaching total value of QR119.759bn with volume of 4.925 million transactions in March this year.
