MasterCard has announced that it is establishing contactless acceptance as standard by 2020 for merchants accepting MasterCard and Maestro in Europe, ensuring that, consumers will be able to pay with their contactless cards and NFC enabled devices at all point-of-sale terminals in Europe by 2020.
“Europeans can already use contactless cards or NFC enabled mobile payments in 36 countries across Europe and their enthusiasm for this safe and simple way to pay is evident” – commented Javier Perez, President MasterCard Europe. “NFC-enabled cell phone shipments are to soar fourfold in the next five years according to IHS Technology. MasterCard wants to ensure that mobile and contactless payments are safe and simple wherever you are in Europe making it easy to pay how you want when you want..” MasterCard is setting compliance dates with sufficient lead time to absorb the normal terminal lifecycle:
- Existing POS terminals can be replaced at end of lifecycle, but at the latest by 1 January 2020.
- New POS terminals must adhere to the new standard upon deployment as from 1 January 2016.
Showcasing just how fast this technology is being adopted by consumers, a contactless study* conducted by PRIME Research between November 1st 2013 and April 30th 2014 confirmed that consumers enjoy the convenience of contactless payments and expect merchants to catch up with the technology.
According to the PRIME research, the top countries in Europe where consumers are eager to adopt contactless payments and integrate them in their daily routines are the UK, Poland, Russia, Italy, Hungary and France. In the UK, consumers see the acceptance of contactless payments and the speed of adoption by merchants as a differentiating factor. Muscovites enjoy the convenience of being able to pay for the metro with their MasterCard® PayPass™ card. Consumers are also keen for a higher level of merchant acceptance.
