New Market Report: Innovation in Payment Systems: The Emergence of Contactless Cards and Payments

Contactless payments are being promoted by payment providers without necessarily being demanded by consumers. Aimed at displacing cash, which is generally disliked by merchants and financial institutions due to the costs of handling it (including security), contactless payments face strong competition from increasingly popular Chip and PIN debit card payments. Although contactless cards are the short-term future for low-value payments, they will over time converge with mobile handsets. Innovators such as Google and Apple have already launched NFC-enabled devices, and other mobile handset manufacturers will follow when acceptance of contactless mobile payments broadens. Many of the trials underway in various countries have been instigated by Visa and MasterCard. Mainly located in large conurbations, Visa payWave and MasterCard PayPass adhere to international standards, and both schemes are open loop, meaning that cards can be used in a wide range of retail outlets, and not just for payment for public transport or where proprietary readers are installed. Much of the trial activity is taking place in Europe, seen as the next region for growth in contactless payments. UK card providers have been the most proactive in the region in terms of card issuance, with over 19.6 million contactless cards in circulation at the start of 2012.

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Key Highlights

* Proclaimed as the 'next big thing' in the payments industry, there was a lot of media attention directed to the growth of contactless payments during the review period. From 2008 to 2012, the volume of contactless cards increased significantly from 220.0 million in 2008 to 610 million in 2012.
* Lack of merchant interest in adoption of contactless terminals raises significant concerns with regards to the growth of contactless mobile payments. Predicted to be the wallets of the future, the reality is that the global payments industry is at least three years away from the mass adoption of the mobile wallet.
* Even if contactless payments are rolled out nationwide in each of the countries where trials are taking place, they are unlikely to become a substitute for low-value cash payments for at least the next five years until consumers are comfortable with the security of payments and with using the technology.
* During the review period, the number of contactless cards in the US increased from 58.6 million in 2008 to 140.0 million in 2012 at a CAGR of 24.31%. The number of contactless cards in Canada registered a review-period CAGR of 63.87%, growing from 1.5 million cards in 2008 to 10.5 million in 2012.

Scope

* This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the contactless payments industry across the world
* It provides current values and forecast analysis of contactless payments market size for 2012 and 2017

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