Contactless Payments: Opportunities & Advantages

Traditionally, the term “contactless payments” referred to EMV payment solutions based on near-field communication (NFC) technologies. Almost every payment card or app user nowadays is familiar with such technologies as Visa payWave or MC PayPass. Not to mention Apple Pay and Google Pay. From cardholder’s perspective it is easy. You just “tap” the terminal with your EMV card or gadget, and transaction comes through.

A new perception of contactless payments

Presently, the economy on both macro and micro-levels is striving to adjust to new realities, brought by coronavirus business impact. Social distancing requirements increase the share of various remote and card-not-present payments among payment types. At POS (where buyers are physically present), EMV contactless payments are more often preferred to card swipes, PIN-involving transactions, cash payments and checks. Digital person-to-person payments prevail over cash and check-based financial interactions. Besides that, payment card industry is striving to mitigate the surge in fraudulent activity. For that purpose, it is working to improve payment security through introduction of new PCI standards and recommendations.

In view of these developments, the concept of “contactless-ness” might be interpreted in a much broader sense than before. No contact between buyer and seller, or, in the general case, between sender and receiver of the payment (all interaction made digital). No contact between credit card and payment terminal. And, finally, no contact between cardholder data and payment applications. All these aspects of contactless-ness apply to the current strange and challenging times.

Contactless payments versus cash

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