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RBR: COVID-19 speeds up contactless rollout worldwide
The pandemic will be remembered as a decisive time for contactless payments with accelerated card issuance and usage
Consumers favour contactless payments during the pandemic RBR’s Global Cards Data and Forecasts to 2026 shows that the number of contactless purchases increased by 36% in 2020. Many hygiene-conscious consumers gravitated towards contactless payment methods during the pandemic to minimise contact with EFTPOS terminals — this was also widely encouraged by businesses and retailers. Governments took note of this trend and several countries, including the UK, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, raised the limit for payments without PIN, facilitating contactless spending further.
High levels of growth will continue, with RBR forecasting that the number of contactless card purchases will increase by 23% per year on average, reaching over 500 billion by 2026.
Contactless is diverting everyday spending away from cash
Some regulators and financial institutions view contactless technology as key in advancing the shift away from cash. Consumers are already choosing to use contactless cards for many low-value, everyday purchases they would have previously made with cash. In China, the central bank has mandated that all new cards must be issued as contactless to expedite uptake of cashless payments. RBR’s research reveals that contactless card usage is most established in Europe, which sees the highest average number of contactless purchases per card. Countries such as Ukraine which have particularly high levels of card tokenisation and mobile wallet usage have the most active contactless card users.
Contactless cards will expand their reach but some markets may be harder to crack
Contactless rollout will accelerate in all 65 countries covered in RBR’s study, with 81% of all cards forecast to be contactless in 2026. The fastest growth in contactless cards will be in the Americas. Issuance had previously been slow in many countries in this region, but the picture changed in 2020 when Brazil and Mexico both saw contactless card numbers almost triple as both banks and fintechs ramped up their activity.
Contactless cards may, however, struggle to gain momentum in countries with established alternative contactless payment methods, such as Indonesia where QR code payments are widely used and contactless card uptake has so far been sluggish. International card schemes are considering mandates for issuance of their cards as contactless to tackle such obstacles.
Companies In This Post
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- Members First Credit Union Selects Mahalo Banking to Modernize Digital Experience Alongside Core Transformation Read more
- Why Progressive Modernisation is the Smart Way to Upgrade Core Banking Read more
- Network International and Compass Plus Technologies Celebrate 20 years Powering Digital Payments Across Africa Read more
- Stopping Profit Leakage with Torus, payabl., and Raiffeisen Bank International Read more
Reset Raises $6 Million Seed Round Anchored by Credit Union Customers to Expand Embedded Earned Wage Access Platform
Reset, an embedded earned wage access platform built for credit unions and community banks, today announced it has raised $6 million in seed funding, bringing total capital raised to more than $8 million. The round was anchored by credit union customers and strategic partners in the credit union and community banking space.
Members First Credit Union Selects Mahalo Banking to Modernize Digital Experience Alongside Core Transformation
Members First Credit Union (‘Members First’) has selected Mahalo Banking’s Thoughtful Banking® platform as part of a broader technology modernization initiative to deliver a more flexible, intuitive, and future-ready digital banking experience for its members. The partnership aligns with the credit union’s transition to the Corelation Keystone core platform and reflects a strategic effort to strengthen digital agility and member engagement.
Network International and Compass Plus Technologies Celebrate 20 years Powering Digital Payments Across Africa
Network International (Network), a leading fintech company across the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Compass Plus Technologies, an international provider of retail banking and payments software, celebrated 20 years of collaboration and evolution as both companies remain committed to supporting digital payment innovation.
Volante Technologies Launches “Vol360i” Agentic AI at the Core of Payments, Setting a New Global Standard for Intelligence in Banking
Volante Technologies, the global leader in Payments as a Service (PaaS), today announced that its Payments Platform and PaaS operations are now powered by its “Vol360i” Agentic AI. The core upgrade unlocks autonomous and semi-autonomous collaboration to reduce manual intervention, significantly increasing straight-through processing (STP) rates to over 95%, accelerating exception resolution, and proactively managing SLA performance.
Titan Secures $3M in New Funding to Further Scale Its Banking Native AI Platform for Financial Services
Titan, the first of its kind, banking‑native AI platform purpose‑built for financial services, today announced it has raised $3 million in new funding, led by Entropy Ventures. The raise accelerates its mission to deliver auditable, explainable AI infrastructure for the highly-regulated banking landscape, allowing institutions to innovate securely and at speed.
Feedzai Opens $9 Trillion Fraud Intelligence Network to Every Bank
Feedzai, the global leader in AI-native financial crime prevention, today announced the availability of Feedzai IQ Score, an AI-native, network-derived fraud risk scoring solution for banks of all sizes.
Taskize Partners with Global Relay to Transform Financial Services Comms Archiving
Taskize, the leading investment operations collaboration platform and Euroclear-owned fintech, has partnered with Global Relay – an innovative provider of integrated digital communications and mobile compliance solutions for highly regulated industries – to bring structured, secure, and fully auditable API-based archiving capabilities to Taskize users.
Reset Raises $6 Million Seed Round Anchored by Credit Union Customers to Expand Embedded Earned Wage Access Platform
Reset, an embedded earned wage access platform built for credit unions and community banks, today announced it has raised $6 million in seed funding, bringing total capital raised to more than $8 million. The round was anchored by credit union customers and strategic partners in the credit union and community banking space.
Members First Credit Union Selects Mahalo Banking to Modernize Digital Experience Alongside Core Transformation
Members First Credit Union (‘Members First’) has selected Mahalo Banking’s Thoughtful Banking® platform as part of a broader technology modernization initiative to deliver a more flexible, intuitive, and future-ready digital banking experience for its members. The partnership aligns with the credit union’s transition to the Corelation Keystone core platform and reflects a strategic effort to strengthen digital agility and member engagement.
Why Progressive Modernisation is the Smart Way to Upgrade Core Banking
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Network International and Compass Plus Technologies Celebrate 20 years Powering Digital Payments Across Africa
Network International (Network), a leading fintech company across the Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Compass Plus Technologies, an international provider of retail banking and payments software, celebrated 20 years of collaboration and evolution as both companies remain committed to supporting digital payment innovation.
Stopping Profit Leakage with Torus, payabl., and Raiffeisen Bank International
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EXCLUSIVE: “The Power of Foresight” – Kunal Galav, Marija Nakevska and Jérémie Bouguéon, Pleo in ‘The Fintech Magazine’
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Volante Technologies Launches “Vol360i” Agentic AI at the Core of Payments, Setting a New Global Standard for Intelligence in Banking
Volante Technologies, the global leader in Payments as a Service (PaaS), today announced that its Payments Platform and PaaS operations are now powered by its “Vol360i” Agentic AI. The core upgrade unlocks autonomous and semi-autonomous collaboration to reduce manual intervention, significantly increasing straight-through processing (STP) rates to over 95%, accelerating exception resolution, and proactively managing SLA performance.