National Australia Bank (NAB) and Visa have embarked on a major roll-out of contactless payments readers that will see 2500 delivered to merchants by Christmas.
The first stage of the deployment will involve 500 merchants - including Sumo Salad and Pancake Parlour - in Melbourne this month.
Customers will be able to pay for purchases of up to A$100 by holding their Visa payWave-enabled cards against the readers. The readers are based on EMV chip technology with payments made via radio frequency. The payment information includes an encrypted security code that is unique to each transaction.
Steve Aliferis, executive general manager, working capital solutions, NAB, says: "The motivation for merchants to go contactless is customer convenience and the cost savings and revenue uplift associated with faster throughput and reduced cash handling costs."
Earlier this year the bank revealed it is looking at a commercial launch of contactless mobile payments after a three-month trial at Melbourne's Docklands "exceeded expectations" and indicated a strong consumer appetite for the technology.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia and MasterCard are also pushing the technology and aim to install 5000 readers by the end of the year.