Europe · GDP rank #25
Belgium
BE · EUR @ 1.1595/USD
Belgium runs on a single domestic debit scheme. Bancontact carried 2.5 billion transactions in 2024 — roughly nine in ten POS card swipes — and Payconiq sits on top of it for mobile. SEPA Instant adoption is among the highest in the euro area on the back of the EU Instant Payments Regulation, and the EPI/Wero retail rollout reached Belgium in March 2026. The interesting questions are about acquirer economics and Wero acceptance, not about whether cards or instant will win.
Tab 05
Cross-border
Inbound and outbound remittance corridors, tourism flows, FX markup on retail cross-border, and the country's posture on stablecoin adoption. Corridor figures come from the World Bank RPW feed or the publishing central bank; both are cited when they disagree.
Remittance inflows
USD · 2023
Remittance outflows
USD · 2023
~1.2% of Belgian GDP per IOM analysis.
Inbound tourism spend
EUR · 2024
Outbound tourism spend
EUR · 2024
Avg. corridor cost
% · Q4 2024
Net sender
Top inbound corridors
- FranceUS$0.9B
via bank
- NetherlandsUS$0.6B
via bank
Top outbound corridors
- MoroccoUS$0.49B
via MTO
- RomaniaUS$0.40B
via bank
- TurkeyUS$0.38B
via MTO
Cross-border card
Card flow leaving and arriving
Cards issued domestically and used abroad reflect outbound consumer travel and cross-border e-commerce; volume acquired from abroad reflects inbound tourism and foreign online shoppers.
Issued volume spent abroad
EUR/year · 2024
Acquired volume from abroad
EUR/year · 2024
FX cost
What consumers pay above the interbank
Retail FX markup is the spread between the mid-market rate and the rate the consumer receives — the single largest friction point in small-ticket cross-border.
- FX regime
- free-float
- Reference
- Euro-area founding member; ECB sets monetary policy.
Source · National Bank of Belgium
Full reference
Remittances
Net Position: sender
Source: