Europeans Ready For Wearable Payment Devices Says Mastercard

Europe’s been known for setting fashion trends across the globe, from the fashion houses of Paris to the runways of Milan. A recent announcement from Mastercard illustrates a new kind of wearable trend from across the pond: wearable payments.

About one quarter (24 percent) of Europeans expect to start wearing contactless payments in the form of a smartwatch, bracelet, keyring, or other piece of connected apparel (perhaps the next new thing will be the contactless payment piercing?).

Whatever the sartorial choice of “tap and go” payments are to come, it’s very much a real trend across Europe, and Mastercard produced figures suggesting Europeans are willing to explore new ways to pay. Take the Netherlands, for example: the country has 80 percent of retail its stores offering contactless payments, and a  recent wearable payments trial for the leading Dutch bank ABN AMRO has been announced — a bank known for trailing new technologies for payments and biometric security.

Security has been a major concern when it comes to contactless payments, and concerns about fraud with these technologies has seen a decrease across Europe, especially in the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK, with a growing market putting their trust in this technology.

“Europe leads the world in contactless payments and its overwhelming success has created a demand for even greater convenience,” said Paolo Battiston, Executive Vice President Digital Payments & Labs Europe at Mastercard. “Shoppers trust in contactless is greater than ever, and in turn it seems they are ready to take this one stage further by trying contactless through connected devices. Pilots like the one we’re involved with in The Netherlands will empower consumers in the digital economy.”

With advancements with this technology made by companies like Mastercard, there has been a 42 percent growth in the number of retail locations across Europe accepting contactless payments with an overall 38 percent of transactions being contactless.

Paolo Battiston, Mastercard and Yvonne Duits, ABN AMRO are both be attending Mobile World Congress, where Mobile ID World and FindBiometrics are currently reporting live, providing the latest news, updates, and announcements from the show.