Contactless Payments Expand 145 Percent in Europe, Mastercard Says

Contactless payments on the Mastercard and Maestro networks grew by 145 percent in Europe, a recent study by Mastercard has found. Growth in contactless payments was strong across multiple countries in Europe and is helping drive interest in wearable payments, the ETA member and global network said in a release last week.

The expansion in tap-and-go payments technology corresponded with a marked decrease in security concerns around contactless fraud, the release said. Across Europe, there was a 24 percent decrease in concern, led by major drops in in the Netherlands (-41 percent), Spain (-33 percent) and United Kingdom (-31 percent).

“Europe leads the world in contactless payments and its overwhelming success has created a demand for even greater convenience,” said Paolo Battiston, Executive Vice President Digital Payments & Labs Europe at Mastercard, according to the release. “Shoppers trust in contactless is greater than ever, and in turn it seems they are ready to take this one stage further by trying contactless through connected devices.”

One quarter of Europeans are anticipating they will start making contactless payments through wearable technologies like smartwatches and NFC-enabled jewelry. Excitement is highest in Sweden, where 41 percent of respondents said they were expecting to use wearable payments technologies in the future.

ETA recently announced the addition of an all-new Contactless Zone, presented by FreedomPay, on the show floor at TRANSACT, the world’s premier payments technology event. The Zone will focus on emerging contactless payments technology, like wearables, tap-and-go cards and mobile wallets, in the United States. TRANSACT takes place April 17-19 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.