Natwest and the Royal Bank of Scotland have announced they are preparing a large-scale contactless card deployment, in partnership with Visa Europe.
The operation will see the two banks issue Visa contactless cards to over two million eligible customers over the next year. Steve Rubenstein, Director of Everyday Banking at NatWest and RBS said: “Contactless payments will offer our customers speed and convenience for low value payments, making their day-to-day shopping experience much easier, with all the security and protection of any Visa product.”
The move was powered by the adoption of contactless payments by the UK’s top retailers such as Marks&Spencer’s. Mark Austin, Vice President, Contactless at Visa Europe commented: “We’re delighted to announce that RBS and NatWest will be rolling out Visa contactless cards in 2013. Many major merchants like Marks & Spencer, the Post Office and London’s buses are now accepting contactless payment as the service becomes a high street reality. We are expecting to see contactless transaction volumes quadruple in 2013 as momentum in this exciting space continues to grow.”
Today there are almost 30 million contactless cards in circulation in the UK and around 50 million in Europe. Contactless payments are accepted at more than 150,000 terminals in the UK and a total of 590,000 across Europe.
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