“Businesses must embrace digital payments or risk getting left behind. A quarter of all UK smartphone users are predicted to make in-store payments using a mobile phone by 2023. The move to increase the contactless spending limit is an inevitable response to that fact. The pandemic has accelerated the move towards cash-free payments and consumers now expect to make convenient and quick payments without entering a pin code.”

“Increasing the contactless spending limit benefits both merchants and consumers. Businesses will experience an increase in overall revenue as consumer spend is no longer limited to £45. As such, affording customers the freedom to spend more in store. And the consumer benefits from greater financial security, thanks to the tap to pay technology which is encrypted with dynamic data technologies to protect users from fraudulent purchases.”

“As contactless payments become more popular, the finance industry must step up to the challenge of ensuring that merchants are equipped with the right payment solutions to accept payments in a secure, efficient, and simple manner. Those that are too slow to move away from cash as a primary mode of receiving payments will have the viability of their businesses significantly threatened as they won’t be able to compete.”