Europe · GDP rank #14
Spain
ES · EUR @ 1.1595/USD
A mature euro-zone market where Bizum has delivered something most of Europe has not — mass-consumer instant payments at national scale — and where the incumbent banking system has retained durable share of the wallet battle. Card penetration is high, cash is falling faster than the euro-zone average, and the SEPA Instant mandate is pushing a second wave of change.
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
Inbound tourism spend
EUR · 2024
85.0m international visitors in 2024, 2nd in world after France.
Outbound tourism spend
EUR · 2024
Avg. corridor cost
% · Q4 2024
Net sender
Top inbound corridors
- United KingdomUS$590M
via bank
Top outbound corridors
- ColombiaUS$1.4B
via MTO
- MoroccoUS$980M
via MTO
- EcuadorUS$770M
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
Foreign-card share of tourism spend, separating card from non-card channels.
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
- euro-area member
- Reference
- Euro adopted 1999 (notes/coins 2002)
Source · Banco de España
Full reference
Remittances
Net Position: sender
Source: