(22nd September 2009 – Australia) National Australia Bank has announced that it will roll out the new contactless payment system to over 500 Melbourne merchants this month and a total of 2,500 contactless readers by the end of the year.While NAB is planning on installing 2,500 readers by the end of the year, the bank has the ability to roll-out 50,000 readers nationwide, NAB transaction banking products general manager Ross Iannello said.
The cards that are to be used with NAB contactless readers are embedded with Visa’s chip-based payment technology called payWave.
Visa’s general manager for Australia and New Zealand, Chris Clark, said in a statement that he believes contactless payments will transform the retail environment in much the same way that contactless tolls have reduced traffic congestion.
Visa internal research claims that the average speed of service by common debit or credit cards is 25-35 seconds. Cash comes in at 12-14 seconds but contactless payments take a maximum of only six seconds.
Customers won’t have to sign or enter their PIN for transactions under $100 for Visa chip cards with the new payWave feature, or under $35 for cards with the rival Mastercard technology. For transactions over those amounts, signature or PIN will be required.
The popular salad bar outlet Sumo, was involved in a pilot program with NAB and Visa and said the results had made an impact on its bottom line.
Sumo Salad managing director, Luke Baylis, told the Australian newspaper that the new payment platform saved up to a minute per transaction.
Mr Baylis added that the company has seen much larger transaction counts and less queues.
This is ideal for businesses like Sumo, who deal with low-value, high-volume transactions Mr Baylis concluded.