Absa drives tap-and-go payments

Absa is introducing contactless payments and extending the services offered by its point of sale (POS) machines.

This is according to Simon Just, Absa card's head of consumer issuing services.

Speaking at a media briefing yesterday, Just said Absa has introduced contactless payments through “tap-and-go”. This payment solution will allow consumers to pay for retail purchases and transport fares by tapping their cards against a card reader. Absa has begun the roll out of these card readers and is also in talks with transit operators to introduce tap-and-go payments for public transport.

Just stressed that Absa has limited transactions on these cards to a maximum of R200 a day and R3 000 a month, with users able to load a maximum of R1 500 on the cards. Just said Absa hopes to roll out 4 000 tap-and-go devices by the middle of 2012.

Just added that customers will be able to perform a range of banking transactions using the Absa POS devices at selected merchants. The additional services include cash withdrawals and deposits, purchasing airtime, obtaining mini-statements and checking balances. The roll out of these POS services has already begun, according to Just.

Absa also unveiled a remote account opening application. Arrie Rautenbach, head of retail markets at Absa, said that using Android devices, mobile Absa consultants can open bank accounts and issue debit cards to new customers in less than 10 minutes.

This includes scanning the customer's ID book and capturing the relevant information, he explained.

According to Rautenbach, the system will enable Absa's sales consultants to open 50% more accounts. He added the ability to include GPS co-ordinates of where the documents were scanned would also allow the bank to compile customer and sales data.

According to Rautenbach, over the next five years, the mobile phone will become a commonly used device for making payments.

Rautenbach argued that Absa's tap-and-go solutions are significant, because they “provide the key gateway to mobile transactions”. He said that in the future, consumers will simply tap mobile phones, enabled with near-field communication (NFC) technology, against card readers in order to make payments.

However, Rautenbach pointed out there is still a lot of work to be done before mobile phones become a common way to make payments. According to him, banks, acquirers and merchants need to promote the benefits of contactless and mobile payments.

Just also said Absa has seen an increase in the use of debit cards. According to Just, this may be evidence of a move away from cash, to more secure alternatives. He said Absa would also introduce “multi-application cards”, which allow users to access multiple accounts from a single card.

Just said that, in future, mobile wallets, stored on NFC-enabled smartphones, will allow for the use of tickets, vouchers and coupons.