Easier norms for contactless use may boost cards

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to hike the limit on contactless payments without entering a PIN to Rs 5,000 from Rs 2,000 earlier is expected to level the playing field in favour of cards. The development comes at a time when QR (quick response) code transactions are seeing runaway growth.

In India, QR code-based payments have been increasing on the back of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which saw a record 2.2 billion transactions in November. Two key advantages for merchants in the use of QR codes is that they can start accepting payments without spending on point-of-sale (PoS) devices, and it is contactless — a key feature during the pandemic.