NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Both Visa and Mastercard say contactless transactions made up a growing share of all face-to-face transactions for cards and other credentials bearing their brands during the last fiscal quarter, crediting in part an increasing aversion to cash by consumers because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Contactless usage rates, however, had been increasing by nearly the same rates before the pandemic.
Visa CEO Al Kelly said during the company’s recent earnings call that 65% of all face-to-face domestic transactions with Visa-branded cards and credentials globally outside the U.S. were contactless in its fiscal fourth quarter, ending Sept. 30. Visa said that the contactless transaction penetration rate fell sharply, to 43%, when including transactions in the U.S. American consumers use contactless much less often than their counterparts in many countries in Europe and some countries in Asia, though U.S. usage is growing, as well.
The contactless transaction penetration rate of 65% globally excluding the U.S. for Visa’s most recent fiscal quarter shows an increase of 5 percentage points over the previous six months, with Visa reporting after its fiscal second quarter that contactless accounted for 60% all face-to-face domestic transactions globally outside of the U.S. The network did not release a figure for global contactless penetration including the U.S. at the time.
