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Contactless cards issued by Barclaycard, the credit card-issuing arm of United Kingdom-based bank Barclays PLC, have accounted by far for the lion's share of contactless transactions in and around London, according to Richard Mould, who manages the issuer's contactless program. Speaking last week's at the Cartes and IDentification 2008 conference and exhibition in Paris, Mould said Barclaycard continues to make contactless a priority as the rollout moves nationwide and seeks to gather momentum with merchants. "Eighty percent of contactless transactions were on our cards, and we certainly didn't have 80% of the cards (in circulation)," Mould said. He declined, however, to release transaction figures. Barclaycard led the London launch of contactless payment in September 2007 with the introduction of its heavily promoted OnePulse card that combines conventional chip-and-PIN payment with a Visa payWave contactless retail payment application and a separate Oyster transit application. Cardholders can use the latter to pay fares on London subway trains and buses. As of last May, consumers initiated fewer than 20,000 contactless retail transactions per month in the UK at 6,200 payment terminals in shops accepting contactless payment, mostly in London, according to UK payments association APACS, which estimated there were 340,000 contactless bankcards in circulation in May. The figures have grown, and Mould said last week banks and merchants have deployed about 10,000 contactless terminals. Barclaycard itself is issuing more than 1 million contactless cards this fall, mainly as it replaces most of the Goldfish credit card portfolio it acquired from U.S.-based Discover Financial Services earlier this year with Barclaycard-branded cards that also carry contactless payWave or MasterCard Worldwide PayPass applications, but no transit program. Barclaycard also said last month all new platinum cards it issues will support contactless retail payment. Mould noted the platinum cards are Barclaycard's "prime recruitment product." However, he declined to say when he thought any large, national chains might start accepting contactless payment, but added negotiations have been "positive." "We are creating a new way to pay," he said. "We are creating a new market, so there definitely is a way to go."
