The success of contactless payments is well established. Following 1 billion transactions in 2017 and 2 billion in 2018, more than 3 billion transactions were processed in France in 2019.
From the very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, contactless payment emerged in France and abroad as one of the preventive measures likely to limit the risk of infection during everyday shopping. By reducing physical contact, facilitating social distancing, and speeding up checkout processes, contactless payment helps protect retailers and other affected businesses, their staff, and their customers in the unique context of this pandemic.
To ensure that this measure can be applied to a greater number of payments and to support the economic recovery as lockdown restrictions are lifted, banks, retailers, and trade organisations partnering with the Cartes Bancaires CB consortium have joined forces to raise the limit for contactless card payments from 30 to 50 euros.
It has been up and running since 11 May. In close collaboration with trade organisations, from 17 March to 17 April, on-site risks were assessed and resolved. On 18 April, campaigns began to configure 70 million cards, 1.7 million terminals, and banking information systems. In early May, thousands of tests were conducted in collaboration with major food retailers to ensure the robustness of the roll-out. This massive undertaking was successfully completed within three weeks despite the challenging conditions of the lockdown.
Today, more than 90% of contactless CB cards in circulation and of open businesses equipped with compatible payment terminals allow contactless payments of up to €50. Nearly 80% of everyday card payments are under 50 euros and can now be made using contactless technology (60% are under 30 euros, and of these, 2 out of 3 payments are already made using contactless technology).
The launch date of 11 May was not chosen at random. Once the industrial and technical challenges of the roll-out had been resolved, the goal was to support the gradual reopening of local retailers as quickly as possible once the lockdown ended. The popularity of contactless payments took off immediately: in just three days, there were 3 million contactless card transactions ranging from €30 to €50, representing a 15% increase in contactless transactions.
