ICICI Bank has launched the country’s first ‘contactless’ debit and credit cards based on the near-field communication technology, enabling customers to make electronic payments by waving the cards near a merchant terminal instead of dipping or swiping these.
These cards provide improved speed to complete a transaction, and enhanced security as they remain under the control of the customer.
The Bank’s ‘Coral Contactless Credit Card’ and ‘Expressions Wave Debit Card’ are powered by ‘MasterCard contactless’ and ‘Visa payWave’ technologies, respectively.
The cards have been introduced in Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Mumbai to begin with. Over 1200 Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machines capable of accepting contactless payments have been set-up across merchants in these cities.
