MasterCard New Zealand: All cards to be PayPass-enabled
28 March, 2011
category: Contactless
MasterCard has announced the introduction of its five year plan, called “The MasterCard Roadmap,” for its payments systems in New Zealand.
MasterCard’s New Zealand Country Manager Albert Naffah said the comprehensive plan will touch every point of the payment landscape with commitments to the roll out of new MasterCard products and services, further safeguards to protect payments, and basic requirements on providing transparency on fees across all MasterCard payment products.
Central to the Roadmap is the continued expansion of MasterCard’s PayPass contactless payment service, which today boasts 88 million cards used at more than 276,000 merchant locations.
“We know that customers want PayPass,” said MasterCard’s New Zealand Country Manager Albert Naffah. And they plan on delivering. The company says that by October 2012, all new MasterCards in New Zealand will be PayPass enabled.
Furthermore, MasterCard is requiring that all new merchants in relevant merchant categories have at least one PayPass enabled terminal. These include: taxis, newsagents, bookstores, supermarkets, convenience stores, grocers, pharmacies, service stations, parking lots, fast food restaurants, cafes, bars and movie theaters.
MasterCard is also requiring that all point-of-sale terminals and all new/reissued MasterCard cards in New Zealand must be EMV compliant by July 1, 2011. By the end of 2015, all ATMs in New Zealand must be EMV enabled as well.
“The set of changes outlined in the Roadmap will change the face of the payments industry in New Zealand and bring a broad range of benefits across the financial sector,” said Mr Naffah.