ContactlessNews | MasterCard New Zealand: All cards to be PayPass-enabled

Monday, March 28, 2011

MasterCard has announced the introduction of its five year plan, called “The MasterCard Roadmap,” for its payments systems in New Zealand.

MasterCard’s New Zealand Country Manager Albert Naffah said the comprehensive plan will touch every point of the payment landscape with commitments to the roll out of new MasterCard products and services, further safeguards to protect payments, and basic requirements on providing transparency on fees across all MasterCard payment products.

Central to the Roadmap is the continued expansion of MasterCard’s PayPass contactless payment service, which today boasts 88 million cards used at more than 276,000 merchant locations.

“We know that customers want PayPass,” said MasterCard’s New Zealand Country Manager Albert Naffah. And they plan on delivering. The company says that by October 2012, all new MasterCards in New Zealand will be PayPass enabled.

Furthermore, MasterCard is requiring that all new merchants in relevant merchant categories have at least one PayPass enabled terminal. These include: taxis, newsagents, bookstores, supermarkets, convenience stores, grocers, pharmacies, service stations, parking lots, fast food restaurants, cafes, bars and movie theaters.

MasterCard is also requiring that all point-of-sale terminals and all new/reissued MasterCard cards in New Zealand must be EMV compliant by July 1, 2011. By the end of 2015, all ATMs in New Zealand must be EMV enabled as well.

“The set of changes outlined in the Roadmap will change the face of the payments industry in New Zealand and bring a broad range of benefits across the financial sector,” said Mr Naffah.

MasterCard certifies multiple NFC handsets

MasterCard has certified a slew of NFC-enabled smart phones for use with MasterCard PayPass contactless payment technology.

Newly certified devices include: BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9380, HTC One X, Intel Smartphone Reference Device, LG Viper 4G LTE, LG Optimus Elite, Nokia 603, Nokia Lumia 610 NFC, Samsung Wave Y, Samsung Galaxy mini 2, Samsung Galaxy S Advance, Samsung Galaxy Nexus (GT-i9250), Sony Xperia S, Sony Xperia P and Sony Xperia sola.

MasterCard Advisors reveals results from study on contactless payments

MasterCard Advisors announced the results of the MasterCard Advisors PayPass Adoption Study, providing a quantitative analysis of the changes in U.S. account transaction behavior after adopting a contactless payments solution.

Identive's tomPAY sticker turns any mobile phone into a contactless payment device

Identive Group announced tomPAY, an NFC-enabled sticker tag that can be affixed to existing mobile phones to enable contactless payments.

Based on Identive’s tom (tag on metal) smart inlay technology, tomPAY is manufactured using the same processes as an ISO PVC card. When placed on a phone, tomPAY enables contactless mobile payments in compliance with MasterCard PayPass specifications, as well as loyalty, transport ticketing and other m-commerce services.

C-SAM, MasterCard to launch mobile wallet in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa

C-SAM, a U.S.-based provider of secure mobile transactions technology, has announced a joint initiative with MasterCard to offer a white label mobile wallet solution to mobile operators, retail banks and payment providers in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

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