OREANDA-NEWS International payment system Visa will allow their card holders to enter a PIN with contactless payment cards, purchases worth up to 3 thousand rubles.

The new rules should come into force in mid-April. The requirements of the payment system apply to all banks participating in the Visa system, said Denis Khrenov, head of acquiring development at Alfa-Bank.

In the autumn of 2018, Visa reported that Russia is in the top three leading countries in the number of contactless payments that are made using both contactless cards and smartphones (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, etc.). Sberbank experts called the growth of contactless payments one of the main trends of the last two years. According to the Bank, at the end of 2018, more than 270 million cards were issued in Russia and almost 50% of transactions were made by contactless method, although in January 2017 this figure did not exceed 1%.

According to a study by the Federal Antimonopoly service, the share of active Visa cards in Russia as of January 1, 2019 was 39.5% of the total. Last year Visa cardholders paid for goods and services for 10.4 trillion rubles, which is almost half (47.3%) of all purchases paid by cards.

The increase in the amount at which you do not need to enter a PIN code is due to the macroeconomic situation and market conditions, said Alexey Kirichek, Vice President, Head of the acquiring Department of VTB.

The current limit - 1 thousand rubles - was established when the exchange rate was more than two times lower, and contactless payments themselves were a novelty for the market, so now that contactless payments have become a habit, Visa raises it to continue the development of the market of non-cash payments, Denis Khrenov believes.

The introduction of new rules will make contactless payments even more convenient and generally improve customer experience