Barclaycard plans to issue contactless corporate cards to all of its United Kingdom-based customers beginning this month in what appears to be the first example of broad contactless commercial card distribution, observers say.
New contactless Barclaycard corporate cards will enable cardholders to tap and pay for transactions of ₤15 (US$24 or 18 euros) at contactless-enabled terminals, according to a Dec. 5 Barclaycard Global Commercial Payments press release.
By introducing what Barclaycard says is the UK’s first contactless corporate card, the issuer hopes to make it easier for corporate cardholders to initiate and track small-balance purchases. The bank also hopes the move will buttress its role as “the leading force” in contactless payments in the UK, Barclaycard said in its release.
The bank has issued more than 14 million contactless credit and debit cards since 2007 and has added contactless-payment terminals in more than 55,000 UK-based retail outlets, the company said.
Adding a contactless feature to commercial cards “gives businesses greater control over expense as well as providing corporate customers an efficient and secure payment experience at the point of purchase,” Dennis Bauer, Barclaycard Global Commercial Payments manager director, said in the release.
Commercial card expert Nancy Atkinson, a senior analyst with Aite Group, says she is unaware of any major U.S. banks issuing contactless commercial cards, partly because contactless POS acceptance continues to lag in the U.S.
“I don’t know if adding contactless would be a big enhancement in the U.S., or in general, because ostensibly people can just as easily swipe their card on a small-ticket purchase,” Atkinson tells PaymentsSource. “It might add some speed and simplicity, but for commercial cardholders this would only be an incremental improvement.”
If contactless payment were to catch on widely in the U.S., there might be more interest in expanding contactless commercial cards here, but that is unlikely to happen any time soon, Atkinson says.
“For U.S. commercial cardholders, getting EMV card capabilities is a much higher priority,” she says.
A growing number of U.S. commercial card issuers are adding EMV chip-and-signature and chip-and-PIN card technology for cardholders who travel abroad (
