Mastercard ties up with Pine Labs for safe and speedy contactless payments

Mastercard has partnered with Pine Labs to roll out more than 26,000 contactless terminals across the key merchant stores in India over the next 12 months. The system powered by Mastercard contactless technology will enable the merchants across Quick Service Restaurants (QSR), retail stores, cinemas and supermarkets to offer contactless terminals as an alternative method of payment to customers.

The contactless payments solution will also help merchants build greater efficiency in managing their costs and time by way of reducing check-out time at the counters and costs related to the handling of cash.

“Pine Labs is delighted to bring contactless payment acceptance in partnership with Mastercard, as it brings in benefits for merchants as well as customers, such as faster and secured checkout plus reduced cost related to cash handling, ” said Kush Mehra, President APAC, Pine Labs.

“Enabling PoS for mobile Near Field Communication (NFC) payment acceptance is a logical step for us, as Pine Labs continuously strives to provide incremental value to its merchants and its customers, through its innovative payment solutions. Pine labs adheres to highest payment security standards and the same are implemented for NFC payments too,” he added

Cashless transactions are on the rise, driven by increasing the availability of contactless cards and introduction of new forms of payment technology in the country. According to a market research report published by MarketsandMarkets, the size of contactless payments market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.2 percent from USD 6.70 billion in 2016 to USD 17.56 billion by 2021.

As per Murali Nair, Senior Vice President of Mastercard for Market Development in South Asia, Mastercard contactless payments are accepted at more than 3 million merchant locations in 77 countries worldwide.

“Mastercard’s contactless technology offers cardholders multi-level protection coupled with speed and convenience. Mastercard contactless payments are accepted at more than 3 million merchant locations in 77 countries worldwide. Our partnership with Pine Labs will help us build a safe and secure contactless payments ecosystem in the country. This is aligned with Mastercard’s vision of a world beyond cash and using technology to make payments safer, simpler and smarter for the consumers,” Nair said.

Presently, more than 60,000 Retailers across India use Pine Labs to securely and reliably manage their Payment Acceptance. Pine Labs payment solutions simplify acceptance of all kinds of payments at PoS terminals, be it Credit/Debit Cards, EMI, Reward Points, Gift Vouchers, e-Wallet etc.