Black Friday debit card transactions were marginally up as of midday, going by Nationwide Building Society data, but retail watchers will be looking to see if this is sustained by the end of the day.

At midday, the Nationwide had seen 2.3 million debit card transactions – up 2 per cent on the same period last year, and 22 per cent up on the same period last Friday.

Mark Nalder, Nationwide Building Society head of payments, said at midday today: “The volume of debit card transactions continues to remain slightly higher than for the same period last year, as we move into the historical peak shopping period of Black Friday over the next few hours, so there may be a decline in transactions with the majority of High Street shops still closed.”

As of 9am, there had been 1.03 million debit card transactions, with the number rising to 2.3 million at midday.

This compared to 1.01 million at 9am and 2.25 million transactions at midday on Black Friday in 2019.

At 2pm in 2019, the figure was 3.35 million and reached 4.78 million at 5pm.

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