The rollout of contactless payment in the United Kingdom will soon enter its fourth year, yet the vast majority of cards are still being issued by just one bank, Barclays, and no large retail chain has widely deployed the technology.
That situation may be slowly starting to change, at least on the latter score. A recent surge in announcements the past couple of weeks indicates more British merchants are planning to take the contactless plunge, including the country’s largest convenience store chain and its fifth largest grocer.
"With the latest rash of releases, contactless is getting more attention now," John Devlin, London-based principal analyst for smart cards and embedded security for ABI Research, told NFC Times. "There is a certain base of cards, although primarily from one bank. (And) what I found interesting from the latest announcements, the range of merchants are not just coffee and fast food."
