MasterCard Drives Expansion of Contactless Payments in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa
Strong growth of MasterCard PayPassTM in the region marked by a 28% increase in merchant locations
PayPass adoption continues to grow in New Zealand
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New Zealand, February 07, 2013 – MasterCard Worldwide announced today record growth of its contactless payments technology, MasterCard® PayPass™, across the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) region in 2012, citing a 28% (YoY) increase in merchant
locations.
MasterCard’s PayPass contactless payment network now boasts nearly 700,000 merchant locations in 51 countries as of Q4 2012. Growth data
reflects a strong demand from consumers for fast and convenient alternative to cash for everyday purchases in region,
including those in emerging markets like Vietnam, which last month launched contactless payments for the first time.
New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa and United Arab Emirates were credited as key
contributors to growth in the APMEA region, and hotbeds for innovation in contactless payments.
• In New Zealand, all new consumer credit and debit cards issued are enabled with PayPass. Consumer-led demand for contactless technology drove uptake among the country’s most popular retailers, including
Bunnings, Kmart, The Warehouse, Resene, Repco, and BP.
• In Australia, more than one-in-ten card transactions under $100 is now being made with PayPass.
• In Singapore, transactions made using PayPass at last year’s Great Singapore Sale (GSS) grew 100-fold, with total spend up by more than 54%.
• In United Arab Emirates, MasterCard collaborated with Network International, the region’s leading acquirer, to expand its contactless payments infrastructure, installing MasterCard PayPass terminals across more than 1000 stores in 2012, and paving the way for contactless mobile payments in the region.
Strong growth in merchant locations was made possible through strategic collaborations, including those with Coles and Woolworths supermarkets in Australia, NTT DOCOMO in Japan, and E.Sun Bank in Taiwan. Merchants are also seeing real impact to their bottom line.
Early last year, MasterCard worked with E.Sun Bank, one of Taiwan’s top tier issuers and a top chain hypermarket to roll
out a new MasterCard PayPass co-branded card aimed at driving higher performance of their customer loyalty programme. In less than one year, E.Sun
Bank had issued 600,000 cards. PayPass functionalities have helped increase customer loyalty, delivering 15% higher spend, 20% less cardholder attrition and
10% more frequent usage than the bank’s average. [1]
Use of PayPass continues to grow in New Zealand
In New Zealand, savvy merchants are quickly realising both the existing and potential future benefits of PayPass, leading to growth in the number of PayPass enabled terminals in the market.
In order to enable New Zealand consumers to make use of these terminals, the country’s leading card issuers including
Air New Zealand, ASB, ANZ, BNZ, Kiwibank, Westpac and The Warehouse Financial Services have been issuing PayPass enabled MasterCard cards.
As a result, there are now a growing number of PayPass-enabled MasterCard cards in New Zealand and several thousand merchant terminals where PayPass can be used to pay including Bunnings, Kmart, The Warehouse, Resene, Repco, and BP, with many other retailers and
service providers looking to roll-out PayPass terminals over the coming months.
MasterCard New Zealand Country Manager, Albert Naffah said: “PayPass in New Zealand is reaching a tipping point. With many of New Zealand’s leading retailers installing and turning on
their PayPass terminals, being able to ‘tap-and-go’ is becoming commonplace, which will really help drive adoption of this technology.
“Kiwis are typically early adopters of technology. As the option to ‘tap-and-go’ becomes more common place, consumers
are fast realising that PayPass is a much more smart, secure and convenient way of paying.
“With cash payments continuing to decline, we truly believe that contactless is the best way to make and accept
payments. PayPass is not only secure, with cardholders protected by MasterCard’s Zero Liability policy [2], but this technology makes the
payments process quicker and more convenient for consumers, while also allowing merchants to accept more payments at
peak sales times, so all-in-all, it is a win-win for everyone.”
Innovation in Contactless Payments to Drive Future Growth
In addition to exponential increases in adoption, innovation in contactless payments underpinned the growth of PayPass across the region in the last year will continue to be a driver in coming months. Highlights of contactless payments
innovation in the last year included:
Innovation
• Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank in conjunction with MasterCard launched Commbank Kaching, the first
Australian iPhone application of its kind to facilitate peer to peer payments and use MasterCard PayPass to allow
customers to simply tap their iPhone to pay anywhere PayPass is accepted.
• East Africa’s largest retailer, Nakumatt, will introduce the multi-currency EMV MasterCard® PayPass™ Prepaid loyalty
card to over one million of its loyalty programme members in the coming months. The collaboration signalled the largest
prepaid merchant agreement for MasterCard in the Middle East and Africa region, to date.
• In Japan, MasterCard was selected by NTT DOCOMO, the country’s leading mobile operator, to help connect their domestic
payments network to the world, and enable consumers in Japan using MasterCard PayPass™ Ready Smartphones to make
contactless payments while traveling the world, anywhere PayPass is accepted.
• In the Middle East, Fransabank's MasterCard PayPass Card won the "Best Contactless Innovation Award in the Middle
East”.
• In South Africa, the rollout of Standard Bank’s Muvo card with PayPass, brought cutting edge technology to Ethekwini
Municipality’s bus transit system.
• In Singapore, MasterCard collaborated with DBS, EZ-Link and Starhub to launch a Near Field Communication (NFC) app
"SmartWallet”, a seamless and secure digital wallet service.
• In Singapore, MasterCard, along with M1 and EZ-Link jointly launched the first Telco-Prepaid MasterCard PayPass card
that rewards the cardholder’s spending on the card with airtime bonus.
For more information on MasterCard PayPass™, please visit: http://www.paypass.com/ and https://www.mastercard.com/mobile/
About MasterCard
MasterCard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the world’s fastest payments processing network,
connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and
territories. MasterCard’s products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling,
running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone.
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[1] Data provided by E.Sun Bank, Taiwan
[2] To read more about MasterCard’s Zero Liability protection visit www.mastercard.com/nz/personal/en/zeroliability/index.html
ENDS