Over the past five years or so contactless payments have emerged as a means by which (its adherents argue) both retailers and transport operators can see tangible benefits. This comes in terms of reduced operating costs and, with greater consumer throughput at point of sale (POS) terminal, increased sales.

In the mobile space, this has been manifested in attempts to translate the increasing popularity of the handset as a remote payment mechanism, into a means both of enabling proximity payments and deeper in-store engagement with the consumer via near field communications).

However, it is within the contactless card environment that the greatest activity is currently taking place.

Schemes such as Visa’s payWave and MasterCard’s PayPass are rapidly gaining traction across Europe and Asia, while at the same time both key retailers and ticketing providers are deploying contactless readers at POS terminals.