What if paying for your errands with a contactless bank card or mobile phone would help fight the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic? This is what the World Health Organization (WHO) seems to think. Following its recommendations, the European Banking Authority (EBA) asked the authorities responsible for payment services in each of the 27 countries of the Union on Wednesday to facilitate this type of payment. The objective is to limit the use of banknotes or coins, on which the virus could remain attached. "Customers and merchants should be encouraged to take sanitary measures using all possible means of payment in stores," says the European Banking Authority.
Read also: Follow our DIRECT on the coronavirus crisis: 231 new deaths in France, 2,827 people are in intensive care
The supervisor therefore recommends, when possible, to raise the limit for payments by contactless bank card to 50 euros. This is the limit authorized on the Old Continent. Mastercard has already answered the call on Wednesday afternoon. However, France, where in 2019 more than a quarter of card payments (3.3 billion euros) were made without contact, is not affected. "In the current context, we cannot raise the contactless payment limits for 60 million bank cards so quickly ," we explain to GIE Carte Bancaire, the French card payment system. But that shouldn't be a problem. ” In fact, since the beginning of March, the average amount of the basket paid for by card in stores has dropped, as has the number of transactions (-30%).
Read also: Coronavirus: cashiers, workers and bank workers work fear in their stomachs
Many local businesses already ask their customers to pay for their purchases by card. And to protect Ile-de-France bus drivers, the RATP has just generalized the payment of the ticket by simple SMS. Elsewhere in Europe, some merchants refuse payment in cash. As for China and South Korea, they have disinfected their banknotes in order to limit the spread of Covid-19.