PayPass cards to come to Slovakia

BANK card issuer MasterCard forecasts that contactless payment technology, such as PayPass cards, will become one a hit among consumers in Slovakia in the coming years.

BANK card issuer MasterCard forecasts that contactless payment technology, such as PayPass cards, will become one a hit among consumers in Slovakia in the coming years.

Milan Laitl, sales director of MasterCard Europe for Slovakia, said in late October that three banks should be ready to use the technology by the end of the year, and another three banking houses are expected to follow in the first quarter of 2011, but the SITA newswire noted that Laitl did not identify exactly which financial institutions would be included.

MasterCard and Volksbank Slovensko first presented the PayPass technology in the summer of 2008.

The service ensures quick payment of transactions with a lower sales value, for instance up to €20.

The results of a survey conducted by MasterCard in March this year indicated that 68 percent of the respondents showed at least partial interest in using PayPass in the future.

Laitl said about half of debit transactions currently being performed fall under the €20 limit of PayPass.

The new technology will also change the design of traditional payment cards by introducing new formats and shapes.

The vast majority of Slovaks use debit cards, around 97 percent according to a MasterCard survey taken in February.

The Slovak Banking Association said Slovakia has one debit card per capita and that debit cards are the single payment tool that enables cash withdrawals from cash machines as well as payments for merchandise for a large number of Slovaks.


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