Visa Europe believes contactless usage has reached a critical point of adoption across Europe. Monthly transaction numbers reached more than 19 million in March 2013 and over €1 billion has now been spent on cards and smartphones equipped with a Visa payWave app.

This year has seen momentum in the UK grow with 1.5 million Visa contactless transactions being made on London buses since December, Marks and Spencer processing over 230,000 transactions every week and the Post Office installing contactless payment terminals in all of its 11,500 branches. The UK made 5.3 million contactless transactions in the month of March, totalling more than £39 million. One in every four Visa cards in the UK are now contactless with 26.9 million cards in circulation and 232,000 contactless terminals have been installed across the country.

Sacha Berendji, retail director at M&S, comments: “Contactless and mobile payment is set to be an exciting part of the future retail landscape. A contactless payment takes place in less than a second, creating a quicker, easier and more convenient shopping experience. Customers are already embracing these benefits and through our roll-out we’re ensuring our stores can cater for customers’ changing shopping habits.”

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