PURCHASE, N.Y.—Mastercard saw a 40% jump in contactless payments, including tap-to-pay and mobile pay, during the first quarter as the coronavirus pandemic worsened.
Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga said the shift was driven by consumers “looking for a quick way to get in and out of stores without exchanging cash, touching terminals or anything else. We are seeing an increase in the use of contactless transactions, and we think this trend will continue after the pandemic.”
“We are seeing an increase in the use of contactless transactions, and we think this trend will continue after the pandemic,” Banga said, according to a CNBC report.
CNBC said the World Health Organization has denied reports that the agency warned against using cash amid the outbreak.
Psychological Factor
“But regardless of whether there’s a proven risk, the psychological factor of people thinking of cash as “unclean” appears to be changing how people choose to pay,” CNBC said.
Before the virus outbreak, mobile payments in the U.S. were consistently below global adoption rates at roughly 10%, according to management consultancy Bain. Experts cite a deeply embedded legacy system and rewards cards as reasons Americans historically don’t tap their phones to pay. In China, by contrast, more than 80% of consumers used mobile payments last year, CNBC noted.