First National Bank (FNB) has started issuing the near-field communication (NFC) technology based credit cards that allow cardholders to make contactless payments.
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FNB’s credit card division’s CIO Delaine Patrick said the bank has already circulated 188,000 NFC credit cards that enable clients to make tap-and-go payments at supported point-of-sale (POS) terminals.
The credit cards operate through conventional chip-and-pin if the retailer’s POS system supports NFC functionality.
FNB credit card CEO Chris Labuschagne told MyBroadband: "The project has been ongoing and we already have a large number of these cards in circulation. The new cards are supplied with additional consumer information.
"Customers who receive these cards are being notified thereof. However, the ability to use these cards is still dependent on whether the merchant has the functionality to accept these payments," Labuschagne told TechCentral.
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By GlobalData"We are able to confirm that FNB and other South African banks are rolling these devices out," Patrick told TechCentral.
Patrick said that the bank has currently restricted the launch of NFC-based cards to South Africa, which means that clients will not be able to use their credit cards to make purchases overseas in a move to allow a controlled test environment.
"We have recently completed a further pilot on the usage of these cards internationally and now plan to open [them] for international use in the near future. In these countries, the cards will simply fall back onto the chip-and-Pin functionality."
Patrick added that FNB is also planning to roll out the NFC tap-and-go payments to its smartphone application.
