In a bid to help small businesses whose transaction volumes don’t warrant acquiring a dedicated POS terminal, National Australia Bank (NAB) is partnering with Visa and Quest Payment Systems to pilot a tap-on-phone solution that provides secure contactless card acceptance using the business owner’s smartphone.
The tap-on-phone solution was developed by Quest Payment Systems, one of Australia’s leading EFTPOS solution providers, and delivers the complete ecosystem to enable contactless transactions on a small business owner’s phone in the same manner and level of security offered by traditional dedicated POS terminals. A NAB small business customer will be able to access this technology by downloading the app to their smartphone and NAB will provide the necessary login credentials so that the small business can begin accepting payments the same day. The tap-on-phone solution will enable transactions of up to AUS$100 (about $68).
“We’ve heard loud and clear from our customers that they want access to payment technology without the additional hardware associated with a traditional POS terminal. It’s also beneficial for our existing merchant customers who may need to set up an additional card acceptance point during high trading times such as Christmas, without the need to obtain a physical device,” Andy Kerr, general manager of transaction banking at NAB, said in the press release.
Kerr added that the pilot is underway and that a rollout of the service is planned for NAB customers in the coming months. No details were provided on the size of the current pilot.
While the ability to accept card payments by phone using a Square-like dongle has been available in the market for some, a contactless solution has not. According to
Dan Parsons, head of merchant sales and solution at Visa, noted that this figure has recently risen to 94% of Visa’s face-to-face transactions.
According to Quest Payment Systems, the tap-on-phone solution will be available only for Android devices since Apple does make the required contactless interface available to developers. However, Quest will support Apple devices through the addition of a Bluetooth payment terminal. Additionally, Quest reports that should Apple make the contactless interface accessible for developers that it will move to make the tap-on-phone solution available for Apple devices.
