E-commerce online bill payments and other forms of card-not-present payments continued their strong growth last year to capture a bigger share of total card payments according to newly released Federal Reserve data The number of what the Fed cals remote payments using general-purpose payment cards grew 228 in 2017 from 2016s levels more than triple the 72 increase claimed by in-person payments At the same time the value of remote payments rose 148 also more than triple the 44 growth rate for in-person payments In all general-purpose card payments totaled 606 trillion last year up 9 from 2016 Transactions on those cards hit 1126 billion up 107 Remote payments which also include mobile and phone-based transactions totaled 281 trillion and accounted for 464 of general-purpose card spend In 2016 remote payments of 244 trillion represented 439 of 556 trillion in card payments The findings come from the 2018 annual supplement to the Feds sweeping 2016 triennial payment study The study is based on data from credit debit and prepaid card issuers and payment processors and networks It was compiled by staff at the Federal Reserve the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Fort Meyers Fla-based Blueflame Consulting LLC The study shows EMV chip cards continued on their march to dominance in 2017 The value of in-person chip-authenticated general-purpose card payments exceeded the value of those without chip authentication for the first time the study says The Fed says general-purpose chip card payments totaled 167 trillion last year slightly ahead of 158 trillion in payments on non-chip magnetic-stripe cards In 2016 mag-stripe cards claimed 229 trillion in payments compared with only 820 billion for chip cards Consistent with the 2015 to 2016 period in-person chip-authenticated card payments continued to post substantial gains increasing from 19 of all in-person general-purpose card payments by number and 264 by value in 2016 to 416 by number and 515 by value in 2017 the report says Other notable findings include Data from the nations largest banks showed a 28 year-over-year decline in the number of ATM withdrawals in 2017 At the same time the value of the ATM withdrawals rose only 05 less than the approximately 2 inflation rate In part increasing card payments by number may indicate the replacement of some cash payments either directly for in-person purchases or indirectly as more shopping moves to remote payments the report says Automated clearing house payments exhibited accelerating growth rising 57 by number and 69 by value from 2016 to 2017