Judging successful contactless coverage. Contactless Intelligence News Review 2017 WK21

Judging successful contactless coverage

Attitudes have changed fast and not just in the UK. According to a recent survey by ING around 1 in 5 Europeans rarely carry any notes and coins with them and over a third would be happy to go completely cashless. While most people still think that they will never go completely cashless, nearly 80% expect to continue to reduce their use of cash and the convenience of contactless payment is clearly playing a role.

In fact, the latest figures from Juniper Research (out last week) back up this trend. Their research pointed out that cards accounted for well over 90% of transactions by value in many European markets. Perhaps not surprisingly, many markets with a relatively well established contactless infrastructure have been seeded by the card providers, albeit with varying degrees of success.

“Purely from a payments and convenience perspective, it will be difficult for mobile wallet providers to gain existing market share from contactless cards,” said research author Nitin Bhas. “It is therefore incumbent upon them to deliver innovative services through which the mobile wallet will become the default payment mechanism.”

Bhas also noted that that the global value of contactless transactions made via payment cards, mobile and wearables will reach $1.3 trillion by 2019, more than doubling from an estimated $590 billion in 2017. More specifically, contactless card levels will continue to dominate transaction values, accounting for 80% of total contactless transactions in 2019 – with contactless transactions via debit/credit cards expected to exceed $2 trillion globally by 2021.

These figures backing up a growing trend is all well and good, but as always, the best news comes from someone in authority going on record to voice their distrust of this growing payment technology. In fact, UK Judge David Bartlett has declared the use of contactless technology ‘quite ludicrous’, upon hearing how a card was used in a shop after it was stolen.

According to the UK prosecution, NatWest and Tesco cards were swiped from the owner’s bedside table as he slept in his house. The thief made use of them soon after, but was allegedly given these cards by another person. The owner reported the theft as soon as he woke up.

Purchases were made and cash from ATM machines using a PIN number which had been left on a notebook on the same bedside table as the wallet.  The judge said: “You can make these contactless payments now. It seems quite ludicrous that banks allow this to happen. It seems anyone who steals a card can wave it around until it is reported as stolen.”

An amusing anecdote of a rather interesting case of theft, but even the judge’s view, popular perhaps a few years ago, has become an oddity in itself. The same Juniper Research report demonstrates  such growing contactless usage, that it is at the point where it has affected negatively the adoption of mobile payments services such as Apple and Android Pay in Europe and Canada.

They say that British Judges are out of touch with everyday life, don’t they? This one certainly is!

Steve Atkins
Contactless Intelligence