MASTERCARD has said that all stores across Europe will accept contactless payments by 2020, paving the way for wider adoption of mobile payment solutions.
Mike Cowan, head of emerging payments products at MasterCard, revealed at the company’s Future of Payments event in London on Wednesday that Europeans will soon be able to tap to pay anywhere.
“From the beginning of 2016 any new payment terminal that gets deployed must accept contactless, and every single terminal must accept it by 2020,” Cowan said.
This means that new point of sale terminals must adhere to the new standard on deployment from 1 January 2016, while existing terminals that don’t yet support contactless payments must be replaced by 1 January 2020 at the latest.
This infrastructure will also support NFC-based mobile payments, and MasterCard said that Apple Pay and Android Pay will be supported at thousands of European shops when they become available outside the US.
