Contactless technology points to cashless society
Digital payment technologies are expected to go beyond plastic cards to include such things as wearable devices and smartphones, leading towards the cashless society of the future.
Ben Soppitt, Visa’s head of emerging products for Southeast Asia and Australia, said the future of digital payment was being driven by contactless technology, especially near-field communication (NFC), which has already been introduced in Visa payWave.
That technology allows Visa users to make low-value payments with no need to insert the card into a terminal, sign their name or enter a PIN – they just hold the card in front of a special card reader. Transactions take place in less than a second.
Visa payWave is now available in both credit and debit cards. But in the near future, this service will be available in three other forms.
These will be a plastic card attached to a smartphone called PayTag; a wearable device called PayBand; and an application embedded in a smartphone called host card emulation (HCE), which presents a virtual and exact representation of a smart card using only software.
Soppitt said PayTag would be available in Thailand soon, with HCE possibly arriving before the end of the year as well.
“Currently, Visa is working with banks to further launch Mobile Visa payWave service in [Southeast Asia] including Thailand,” he said.
Somboon Krobteeranon, Thailand country manager for Visa International Asia-Pacific, said that according to the Bank of Thailand, last year only 17 per cent – almost Bt1 trillion – of total face-to-face payment transactions were digital, while the rest were cash.
“There is a lot of room for growth in digital payment, which is leading the country to the cashless society. The beauty of a cashless society is that people’s daily purchases will be easier, secure and convenient.
“Meanwhile, it helps banks save the cost of investment in and operation of such things as ATMs while helping them improve services in such aspects as speed and security,” he said.
Somboon said four Thai financial companies – Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank, TMB, and Tesco Card Service – had issued about 300,000 cards with Visa payWave. By the end of this year, two more firms will be issuing payWave cards.
He added that there were about 5,000 (NFC) card readers in the country that could read Visa payWave. They will also work on the wearable devices and smartphone systems.
Soppitt said that since Visa payWave was launched across the Asia-Pacific region, the adoption rate had been growing, with Thailand leading the world in the pace of its acceptance of the technology. Visa payWave was launched in Thailand four months ago.
“Thailand is fastest-growing [adopter of the technology] in the world, while Australia is the country where Visa payWave accounts for almost 50 per cent of total face-to-face payment transactions. In [Southeast Asia], Singapore is No 1, [with payWave] accounting for 22 per cent of total face-to-face payment transactions,” he said.
