Mastercard encouraging users to move to mobile payments with new measures
MasterCard has confirmed that European users will be able to make higher value contactless payment through their mobile devices by 2017; the current limits will be raised in several European countries. MasterCard reportedly said that the move is aimed at driving consumers towards payment via mobile devices and away from cards. The move may also be seen as an effort to defend its model from the likes of Apple Pay and Android Pay, by preemptively encouraging users to move to mobile payments with MasterCard's own services.
MasterCard said new standards it is introducing in Europe will make NFC-based payments easier on mobile devices, including lifting the fixed limit on how much consumers can pay in several European countries.

The credit card firm said the aim of the new standards was to drive authentication of NFC-based transactions onto the mobile devices, either through biometrics or via a PIN code, both entered by consumers.

On-device authentication, said MasterCard, means the limit on smartphone payments can be lifted. In several countries, users can only tap and pay to a fixed limit (€25 in France and £30 in the UK).

When the new standards are fully adopted in 2017, European users will be able to pay at all contactless acceptance points with NFC smartphones for all value of transactions.

MasterCard raised the contactless limit in the UK from £20 to £30 from the start of this month.

The card firm also repeated its aim to have contactless available at all MasterCard point of sale acceptance points across Europe by 2020.

In the second quarter of 2015, contactless transactions in Europe grew by almost 170 per cent year on year and consumers already using contactless tapped to pay 20 per cent more, said the card giant.

Contactless spend tripled in Europe compared to Q2 2014. In Q2 2015, one out of two contactless transactions went through a food store, followed by 14.5 per cent at restaurants/bars and 10 per cent at other retail stores.