‘Covid-19 has added another dimension to contactless payments’: Mastercard

With coronavirus pandemic on top of consumer minds, contactless payments have grown by 200 basis points over the last 30 days, according to US payments giant Mastercard.

“Covid-19 has added another dimension to contactless payments,” Vikas Saraogi, VP, Head of Acceptance, Mastercard, South Asia, told Indianexpress.com over a phone call. “It has emerged as the healthiest way of making payments because all that you need to do is to just tap your card and below Rs 2000 transactions, you don’t even require a pin.”

Saraogi says contactless and digital payments have grown 15x in the country over the last 18 to 20 months. A secular trend was already there and Covid-19 has only “expedited” that trend, he said, adding: “What would have happened in the next four to five years, is now happening in the next four to five months, if not four to five weeks.”