Contactless Payments in Europe

Will EMV (EuroPay, MasterCard, Visa) Help Accelerate Contactless Uptake?

Europe has until now remained a barren market for open contactless payment systems. But with the first contactless open payment system in Europe set to roll out in the UK next year, European companies in the transaction value chain will have to address the alignment of their services with emerging contactless capabilities.

EMVCo – the company charged with maintaining and developing the single, global EMV implementation standard – is at least a year away from publishing an EMV Contactless specification, and certified products will not be ready until 2008 at the earliest. However, the leading card associations including VISA, MasterCard and JCB have developed their own EMV with contactless specifications, and card and terminal manufacturers have recently unveiled a range of matching equipment. This Research Brief assesses the position of contactless EMV in the context of the European payment environment, reports on early trials, and forecasts contactless banking equipment shipments and revenue by region to 2011.