Contactless is on the move in Barcelona
Barcelona’s bet on contactless payments and the promotion of NFC technology is already well known. But this very week he had a new example: an agreement signed by IMET (Metropolitan Taxi Institute) and la Caixa bank to furnish in just one year 5,000 taxis (out of the 10,523 in total) with a contactless payment terminals. Payments under 20€ will be automatic, and over 20€ will require of the PIN to successfully finish the transaction.
Contactless payment in a taxi (photo by la Caixa)
This initiative, supported by the MWCapital, is included in the city’s Tap and Go project and aims to make Barcelona the first city to massively implement contactless payment.
La Caixa, promoter of the project, has already deployed 950,000 contactless credit cards, 19,300 payment terminals in shops, restaurants, supermarkets, etc., and adapted 550 ATMs in the city and its surroundings. The plan intends to have over 1.2M cards and 30K POS distributed by the end of the year.
This system also allows users with NFC smartphones to use their handsets to pay through a free downloadable la Caixa app to perform payments, as well as any other NFC payment app.Contactless payments dramatically increase the speed of electronic payments, at the same time that they ensure top security levels.
Taxis and contactless ready shops will be to spot thanks a cling on their window of the NFC/contactless logo, and the name of the project Barcelona Tap and Go.
