On January the 17^th 2012 Visa has released to very interest reports on overall consumer spending for the Euro zone and the UK.

According to Visa £1 in every £3 is spent via a visa card and ecommerce accounts for over 22% of the market, which means a growth of 40% on the from last year. The report of course those include contactless payment which are being introduced 2012 on a massive scale.

Another interesting metric is the decline 23% on fraud reports by the use of EMV technologies (chip and pin).

On the continental side of the Euro bloc €1 in every €7 according to Visa, and fraud declining to less than 4 €cents by EMV technology. Also in Continental Europe there is big expectancy on the rise of card usage once the NFC technology spreads out the bloc.