MasterCard has announced plans to roll-out limitless contactless mobile payments across Europe by 2017.
In several markets a fixed limit is currently imposed on contactless payments; in France it is €25 and in the UK it is £30 – the latter was raised from £20 in the UK earlier this month. However, Mastercard plans to lift this limit completely in the next two years.
At the moment, MasterCard is working on implementing a number of new standards for retailers in Europe that will allow the limits to be lifted without authentication repercussions. MasterCard noted that these new standards aim to drive the authentication of transactions onto mobile devices using biometric functions (such as a fingerprint) offered by many smartphones or by entering a PIN code before or after that tap.
Chris Kangas, Head of Contactless Payments Europe at MasterCard, said: “The capabilities of smartphones combined with the latest terminal standard we’ve been deploying in Europe for the last three years will lead us to a future where one could pay with their smartphone everywhere. And, the list of retailers accepting contactless continues to grow. Over the last quarter, we have announced new contactless acceptance deals across Europe with major retailers like Ikea in Austria; Media Saturn in Germany; restaurants like McDonald’s in Belarus; the Electric Castle Festivals in Romania and the recent contactless launch in the metro in Kyiv in June. The drive to full contactless acceptance is taking hold as reflected in recent device statistics: in July 2015, 43% of new terminals installed had contactless capability which is an improvement from 21% in July 2014.”
Furthermore, on 8 June Transport for London (TfL) reported more than 100 million journeys paid with contactless bankcards since the launch in September last year. The underground network in the UK is currently exploring untapped retail opportunities; Estée Lauder has secured a one-year tenure with TfL to operate one of its new pop-up store locations at London's Piccadilly Circus tube station (read more here).
In Q2 2015, contactless payments in Europe grew by almost 170%. Contactless spend (in Euros) tripled in Europe compared with the year before. In Q2 2015, 10% of contactless transactions were carried out at retail stores.