As Visa continues to roll out the payWave contactless format around the world, the card association plans to migrate its platform to the EMV smart-card standard, making payWave credit, debit and prepaid cards universally accepted for contactless payments with increased encryption security.
Marrying payWave to EMV, which is widely used internationally, “will allow card issuers and vendors globally to implement contactless solutions that are globally interoperable while also providing advanced EMV-based security,” says Elizabeth Buse, global head of product at Visa, in a statement.
As an example of payWave’s progress, Visa notes recent market expansion in Brazil, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand with issuers, merchants and transit payment systems. In addition, Visa recently launched debit-based payWave cards in four U.S. states, and a vending machine capability with Coca-Cola in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In all, Visa has trials and programs rolling out in 20 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.
Citing recent studies by Javelin Strategy & Research, Visa sees the contactless momentum gathering with nearly 25 million consumers worldwide currently using chip-embedded credit cards, and doubling within five years. (What doesn’t go mentioned by Visa is that Javelin predicts that contactless payments usage could fall short of expectations unless issuers and card networks expand merchant networks, including incentives such as support for private-label contactless programs).
