(7 August 2019 – Australia) NAB is partnering with Visa and Melbourne based Quest Payment Systems to launch an innovative tap-on-phone point-of-sale (POS) payments solution that provides secure contactless card acceptance using the merchant’s Android smartphone.
The offering is designed for Microbusinesses with low receivables volumes that cannot justify the outlay for a dedicated traditional POS terminal.
The tap-on-phone solution was developed by EFTPOS solution provider Quest Payment Systems and delivers the complete ecosystem to enable contactless transactions on a small business owner’s phone in the same manner and level of security offered by traditional dedicated POS terminals.
The retail acquiring market has long been one of the most challenged segments especially with the proliferation of online payments however the shift of payments to mobile devices has created an opportunity for traditional players in the smartcard space to lose their hardware overheads.
NAB small business customers gain access to the technology by downloading the app to their smartphone while NAB provides login credentials so that the small business can begin accepting payments the same day. The tap-on-phone solution will enable transactions of up to A$100.
Phone payment acceptance via plug-ins such as those offered by Square have been available for some time however a contactless solution has not. 92 percent of Visa transactions conducted in September 2017 were contactless and this figure has recently risen to 94 percent of Visa’s face-to-face transactions according to Visa Head of Merchant Sales and Solutions, Dan Parsons.
Although the tap-on-phone solution will only be available on Android devices because Apple does not open its contactless interface to developers, Quest will support Apple devices through the addition of a Bluetooth payment terminal. NAB has not yet provided a timeframe for the duration of the trial or set out what merchant costs will be.
“Since the introduction of tap-and-go payments, Australians are carrying less and less cash which can impact sales and growth for small businesses. We’ve heard loud and clear from our customers that they want access to payment technology without the additional hardware associated with a traditional POS terminal. It’s also beneficial for our existing merchant customers who may need to set up an additional card acceptance point during high trading times such as Christmas, without the need to obtain a physical device,” stated NAB Executive General Manager, Transaction Banking, Andy Kerr.
“Although we don’t see this technology replacing physical payment terminals tomorrow, the transition to software based payment solutions will progress over the coming years” stated Quest CEO Jan Mason. “In some ways we are disrupting our own business model. But the reality is that we need to keep evolving to ensure we are able to meet our customers and banking partners where they want to transact. More and more transactions will require on-the-go solutions.”