UK’s payments provider Worldpay has announced it has had its biggest month for contactless since the technology was launched in 2008, processing close to £50m ($84m) in payments.

The company stated it processed 6.8m contactless transactions in March 2014, up from 5.5m in February.

Dave Hobday, managing director of the company, said: "Contactless means being able to serve customers faster and cut down queues. Today’s shoppers demand speedy service, and will walk away if they don’t get it."

Worldpay has helped a number of high-street’s brands install contactless in their stores, including WH Smith, Lidl and Superdrug, as well as some smaller-sized businesses.

"Consumers get a better in-store experience with contactless, with reduced waiting times and no need to carry cash. That’s why last year we helped over 70 large retailers move to contactless," added Hobday.

To date, the provider has processed over 80m contactless payments for its customers, more than trebling its overall transaction volumes using this technology (248%) in the last two years.

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In April, the UK Cards Association stated that the monthly spending on contactless payments had exceeded £100m for the first time, with a record £109.2m spent during March 2014, up by £22.2m since February and by over 200% since the same month in 2013.

London is currently preparing to roll out open-loop contactless payments across the transport network. Passengers have been able to pay with their bank-issued contactless cards on London buses since 2012 and the scheme is due to roll out across the whole network during summer 2014.

Shashi Verma, director of customer experience for TfL, told CI that the scheme would increase the use of contactless cards in general.

He said: "The only comparable use of micropayments is the mobile phone industry."

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