Contactless technology provider Mobeewave is launching tap-to-phone features that remove current contactless payment limits for merchants and consumers globally.
Montreal, Canada-based Mobeewave enables businesses to accept contactless payments by tapping a card or a digital wallet onto the back of an NFC-enabled mobile device. Its new Mobeewave Limitless platform allows the tap-to-phone transaction to move through 3D Secure 2.0 fraud protection for online card-not-present transactions, effectively removing the need to enter a PIN, thus enabling a high-value transaction.
Contactless payments are currently capped at around $100 in Canada and Australia (depending on the issuer), where contactless penetration is at over 80%. In Europe, contactless limits are usually lower and vary by market. In addition, the revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2) in Europe requires banks to implement a PIN request from the consumer after every five contactless payments, or once payments have totaled €150 EUR or £135.
In physical environments, entering a PIN on the screen of a merchant’s mobile device presents a number of challenges, including requiring additional hardware for PIN entry, as well as the fact that PIN for contactless is not supported in some countries such as Canada, France and the U.K. PIN entry also presents additional user experience and security challenges when entering a personal PIN on someone else’s device.
Mobeewave says the new Limitless high-value transaction technology includes a PIN-based solution that instead leverages a user's CVV number to authenticate their payment.
“The use of contactless payments continues to grow around the world, and with the current health and security challenges that both merchants and consumers are facing, it’s become more critical than ever to accommodate high-value contactless transactions,” Maxime de Nanclas, co-founder and co-CEO at Mobeewave, said in a Friday press release.
Mobeewave plans to complete testing of the Limitless platform and roll out the product globally within the next few weeks.
