Background
Contactless payments in general – including payments made with cards – are growing rapidly. Contactless mobile payments – where you pay by holding your smartphone or smartwatch over a reader, for example – are a relatively new and small part of the overall payments landscape, but they are also growing.
We expect them to grow further as:
- More people become comfortable using contactless mobile payments
- There are more contactless-enabled point-of-sale terminals
- Contactless mobile payments offer more functionality
As this area develops, we wanted to make sure we have an understanding of the relevant issues in this sector, which could have an effect on all three of our statutory objectives.
What is in this document?
This report summarises the outcome of our research and our understanding of the sector following our call for information.
This report sets out:
- What CMPs are (in particular, how they work from a functional and technical perspective, and who the main participants are and what their roles are);
- Our focus on certain relevant issues that were brought to our attention or we were interested in; and
- Our ongoing role in protecting competition, innovation and the interests of service users.
Who should read this document:
This document is relevant to:
- Card issuers
- Card network operators
- CMP App providers
- Mobile device operating system (OS) developers
- Non-PSP market participants (e.g. mobile operators)
- Associated technology companies, including industry standards associations.
What happens next?
Our call for information exercise is now complete.
CMPs are still a relatively new development and are also a fast-developing part of the payments sector. For these reasons, we will continue to keep the CMP sector under observation as it develops further, retaining the option to investigate particular aspects in future and to take any action we believe to be necessary to address any problems we may identify or that are brought to our attention.