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Both Visa and MasterCard have issued progress reports on the rollout of contactless cards around the world.
At the end of June 2007, 16 million MasterCard PayPass contactless cards and devices were in issue worldwide. Visa says 41 issuers in 11 countries are issuing Visa PayWave contactless cards.
PayPass trials and rollouts are underway in 19 countries, and 55,000 merchant locations worldwide now accept PayPass, MasterCard says.
According to Visa, the Asia Pacific region is playing a major role in driving contactless adoption. Nineteen issuers in Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore have national contactless programs, it says.
Taiwan is the largest contactless market in Asia-Pacific, with 1.4 million PayWave cards in issue, Visa says.
On September 19, a six-month Near Field Communications (NFC) mobile payment trial was launched involving 500 customers of Taiwanese wireless operator Chunghwa Telecom and Chinatrust Commercial Bank. Participants will be able to use their NFC-enabled phones, which contain PayWave software, to make contactless purchases at the 3,000 stores that accept contactless cards in Taiwan.
MasterCard and Visa issuers began launching contactless cards in London this month. Rollout across the UK will take place during the rest of 2007 and in 2008. UK payments association APACS says 5 million contactless cards are expected to be in issue by the end of 2008, with 100,000 retailers able to accept contactless payments.
This autumn, Visa is to participate in an m-payment trial with Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, a transit agency in Frankfurt, Germany. The project, RMV2go, will involve Visa payWave- and NFC-enabled readers at retail locations in Frankfurt railway stations.
“Contactless payments emerge are now beginning to mature into a global payment feature that is designed to enable faster and more convenient transactions,” Gaylon Howe, Visa International's executive vice president of Global Products, Strategy and Innovation, says.
