As consumers and merchants have increasingly preferred to use touch-free technologies to stay safe during the COVID-19 outbreak, Emirates NBD, a prominent banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Turkey) region, reports that contactless payments now make up 84% of all face-to-face card payment transactions.
The bank saw contactless payment transactions, which include contactless card and mobile wallet-based payments, rise by 59% year-on-year in 2020. Mobile wallet-based payments using Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay more than doubled during the period while card tap and go-based payments increased by about half. Emirates NBD customers also are increasingly using their personal devices such as Garmin and Fitbit smartwatches and health trackers to make point of sale payments.
The share of contactless payments of the total value transacted also has doubled, illustrating the growing customer comfort with using contactless payment options for larger ticket purchases as well. The bank also saw e-commerce transactions increasing by about a fourth in 2020 over the previous year.
Emirates NBD offers customers the option to link their debit and credit cards to their smartphone or wearables to make quick and secure payments via mobile wallets and has also enabled contactless POS payments on all bank cards.
Suvo Sarkar, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Emirates NBD, commented: “Consumers and merchants are increasingly using touch-free technologies as part of precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Emirates NBD has been an early mover in enabling a wide range of contactless card and mobile wallet-based payment options for our clients and we remain committed to providing safe, secure, and frictionless payment experiences for our customers.”
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