Emirates NBD reports steep increase in contactless payments

As consumers and merchants have increasingly preferred to use touch-free technologies to stay safe during the COVID-19 outbreak, Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Turkey) region, reports that contactless payments now make up 84% of all face-to-face card payment transactions.

The bank, a front-runner in digital banking, saw contactless payment transactions which include contactless card and mobile wallet-based payments rise by 59% year-on-year in 2020. Mobile wallet-based payments using Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay more than doubled during the period while card tap and go-based payments increased by about half. Emirates NBD customers also are increasingly using their personal devices such as Garmin and Fitbit smartwatches and health trackers to make point of sale payments. The share of contactless payments of the total value transacted also has doubled, illustrating the growing customer comfort with using contactless payment options for larger ticket purchases as well. The bank also saw e-commerce transactions increasing by about a fourth in 2020 over the previous year.

Emirates NBD offers customers the option to link their debit and credit cards to their smartphone or wearables to make quick and secure payments via mobile wallets and has also enabled contactless POS payments on all bank cards. An early mover in banking and payments innovation, Emirates NBD recently received international acclaim from global payments technology company Visa, winning the Global Service Quality Awards (GSQA) for ‘Emerging Payment Adoption – Contactless’ and ‘Emerging Payment Adoption – Tokenization’ for the second consecutive year. Visa also honoured Emirates NBD for the ‘Highest Authorization Approval Rate – Cross Border Consumer POS’, commending the bank’s high authorization approval rates for cross-border consumer point-of-sale transactions while also ensuring strong controls.

Suvo Sarkar, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Emirates NBD, commented: “Consumers and merchants are increasingly using touch-free technologies as part of precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Emirates NBD has been an early mover in enabling a wide range of contactless card and mobile wallet-based payment options for our clients and we remain committed to providing safe, secure, and frictionless payment experiences for our customers.”

A front-runner in digital banking innovation, Emirates NBD’s robust digital infrastructure has enabled it to continue offering seamless banking services to customers despite COVID-19 related restrictions.