The payment without contact, the big winner of the health crisis ?

If the volumes of transactions are down, Mastercard and Visa are an increase in “contactless” payment.

Since the beginning of the health crisis, the relationship between the French and their means of payment has evolved. Historically very attached to the species, they have not hesitated to set aside in favour of payment solutions to avoid any physical contact. Without surprise, the “contactless” payment saves a (very) sharply since the beginning of the confinement.

+40% on the networks, Visa and Mastercard

Mastercard and Visa have both registered a 40% growth in payments, “non-contact” on their respective networks since the beginning of the crisis. The CEO of Visa, Al Kelly, said earlier in the week at a conference that 60% of transactions in store – and outside of the United States – were carried out with a means of payment without contact. This applies to both the credit card with the option no touch as new mobile payment solutions like Apple Pay or Google Pay.

In France, the groupement Bank Cards (CB) observed a more modest growth, of the order of 4%, the “contactless” payment since the beginning of the epidemic. That said, this method of payment is growing exponentially for several years, and it will be represented not less than 25% of all transactions carried out in France in 2019.

In his remarks, the CEO of Mastercard, Ajay Banga, has given few clues to explain this strong trend which should, according to him, continue well beyond the pandemic. Although the WHO has not explicitly issued a warning on the crisis of transmission of the virus by cash, consumers are worried and are looking for a method to ” get in and out of stores as quickly as possible, without exchanging money, or touch the pos terminals “.

In France, the French banking Federation put in the time to react by rushing its project to increase the ceiling of payment by contactless card is 50€, from 11 may only. Some banks have decided to unilaterally take the lead in re-raising this limit before this date, in the case of Boursorama Banque, which has updated its entire fleet of cards as of 27 April last.

Towards a recovery of volumes of payment ?

While Benoit Grisoni, managing director of Boursorama Banque, told us that consumption was falling, there are already some signs of reversals in some countries.

In their quarterly reports to the respective published at the end of April, Mastercard and Visa have identified a return of volumes in the United States – and even a small growth in certain segments. This is the case for example of the volumes of debit card transactions for Visa, whose growth has been positive over the last week of the month of April. Something to give hope to the banks and new zealand banks, including the economic model of the past is based almost explicitly on the volume of transactions made by credit card…