Doha, Qatar: The total payment system transactions reached 73.533 million in April 2026, representing a 29% increase compared to 56.869 million in April 2025. This growth surge in adoption of digital payment channels.
The card payment systems continued to dominate transaction volume, accounting for 88.8% of total transactions, although this marks a slight decline from 94.9% the previous year. In contrast, transfer payment systems expanded their share to 11.2%, indicating growing reliance on account-to-account transfers and digital banking solutions, Qatar Central Bank (QCB) said recently on its X platform.
In terms of value, the payment system recorded a substantial surge, more than doubling from QR63.302bn in April 2025 to QR111.854bn in April 2026 showing a 77% increase. Transfer payment systems were the primary driver of this growth, comprising 80.2% of total transaction value, up from 67.6% the previous year.
Meanwhile, card payments represented a smaller share of total value at 19.8%, 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 65.322 million, with a combined value of QR22.2bn in April this year.
The point-of-sale (POS) transactions remained the dominant channel, increasing from 40.105 million in April 2025 to 48.042 million in April 2026. Online (e-commerce) transactions also saw significant growth, rising from 8.953 million to 12.098 million in the review period, reflecting the continued expansion of digital commerce.
Meanwhile the ATM transactions, increased from 4.908 million to 5.182 million in April this year.
The data further showed that the growth in instant transfer services through Qatar Mobile Payment (QMP).
In April 2026, total transaction value processed through instant transfer systems reached QR406.274m, representing a sharp increase of 133% compared to QR174.741m in April 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 232,171 transactions in April 2025 to 720,173 in April 2026, an increase of 210%.
The number of total registered wallets reached 1.4 million in April 2026, demonstrating growing user adoption and deeper penetration of digital payment infrastructure.
On the other hand the instant payment system – Fawran service saw 3.816 million registered accounts with the total value of QR5.964bn and volume of 3.490 million transactions in April 2026.
The data further indicated growth in Tahweel system (transfer between bank accounts) witnessed a 106% and 193% surge in value and volume respectively reaching total value of QR83.283bn with volume of 4 million transactions in April this year.
