Invisible touch

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Imagine a world where paying for cinema tickets took less than a second and you never had to queue for a burger again.

Well it may not be long before those dreams become a reality for consumers across the Middle East, thanks to the introduction of contactless credit and debit cards.

The very latest in payment technology, contactless cards, allow customers to pay for items in less than a second by tapping their card against a reader at the cash till or simply passing it in close proximity across the reader.

The technology has already been widely deployed in 12 countries across the US and in parts of Europe and Asia and now MasterCard and Visa are gradually introducing it to the region's banks.

Visa plans to launch its payWave contactless cards on a pilot basis later this year.

Meanwhile Emirates Bank has launched a contactless MasterCard credit card in partnership with Dubai Internet City (DIC) using MasterCard's PayPass technology. Money spoke to the pioneers behind the introduction of the technology in the Middle East about their claims that it will make customers' lives easier - and about how they will address security concerns about contactless cards.

How does it work?

While the concept of simply tapping your card against a reader and passing the card close to it in order to make payments at a cash till may sound a futuristic, alien concept, the technology behind it is in fact already widely used in shops and other outlets across the UAE.

Contactless cards work using radio frequency identification (RFID) - the same method used by shops to scan barcodes and the science behind Dubai's Salik road toll. The technology uses radio waves to transmit signals between an RFID antenna built into a credit card or another object and a reader - such as a bar code scanner.

In the case of contactless cards, the antenna is embedded into the card and a payment is made when the customer transmits a signal between the card and the reader.

Anil Chander, head of the RAKBank's cards business, explains: "Contactless credit cards contain an in-built antenna and when the card comes within a certain proximity of the terminal it establishes a communication with the card. The antenna in the card will catch the radio frequency from the reader at the till then complete the transaction. There is no customer verification needed - the customer does not have to give a signature or tap a pin number into the reader."

It is precisely the lack of customer verification required for contactless credit card transactions that has raised security concerns from customers - and has created a need for card issuers to create strict controls around the use of contactless credit cards.

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