A new survey from Euro Kartensysteme shows that Germans are starting to embrace the idea of contactless and NFC payments.

Out of 1,040 Germans aged 18-59, 43% responded that they would like to make contactless payments if given the opportunity, of which 58% percent would make their payments with a debit card card, 41% with a credit card and 50% with an NFC phone.

As some may recall back in June 2010, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York launched tap-and-go contactless payments for commuters to enter select subway stations and participating bus lines using MasterCard PayPass-enabled terminals. Well, the results are in.

By Jeff Staples, vice president of market development strategy, Blackboard Transact

Contactless technology is rapidly growing in adoption for all types of payment and ticketing systems. According to Eurosmart, 630 million secure contactless cards were shipped in 2008 alone and we have seen the number of trials for near field communication (NFC) products grown exponentially since the late 2000s.

Absa, the largest consumer bank in South Africa, has announced an internal trial of NFC-enabled contactless payments, according to IT News Africa.

Scheduled to kick off later this month, the pilot will see 500 Absa employees equip their BlackBerry smart phones with NFC-enabled MicroSD cards that can be used to make contactless payments.