Mastercard advocates sufficiently high contactless payments limits across Asia Pacific

As nations implement stricter containment measures to keep their citizens protected from the spread of the novel coronavirus, Mastercard has taken a leadership role by actively consulting with governments and industry partners across the Asia Pacific region to ensure consumers have sufficiently high limits for contactless payments.

Having the right transaction limit helps people stock up on more essential items on each trip to public places without having to touch potentially infectious surfaces, key in a PIN, handle cash or use a pen to process their payments. It is also important for merchants and consumers to know that signatures are no longer required for card payments, which further reduces contact points and speeds up purchases.

Consumers simply need to look for the contactless symbol on the front or back of their cards to see if they can tap when they are checking out with their purchases. For mobile devices, any change in limits has no impact on transactions or personal safety as a fingerprint, facial scan or PIN keyed into the device itself is still required and contact points are confined to the cardholder's device.

"Mastercard fully supports social distancing, remote working, stay-at-home measures and other efforts to contain Covid-19 and is actively working with partners and customers in every market to bring the industry together and find mutual ways to help, be it through contributing insights and consultative advice or driving more consumer education and awareness building," said Sandeep Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Products & Innovation, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.

As of February 2020, contactless payments made up approximately 50 percent of Mastercard's global card-present purchases, excluding the United States.