Next year's planned launch of contactless payment in London will involve all of the major card schemes, the UK's two largest issuers and acquirers, at least 500,000 cardholders and perhaps 1,000 merchants. The details emerged from a vendor forum held in late November by APACS, the UK's major payments association. The players stressed the London project is not a trial. It will be launched in the third quarter of 2007 and likely lead to a national rollout, they say. But the card organizations and banks are still trying to sign up merchants, and the expected 1,000 merchants and more than 4,000 terminals accepting contactless payment in London mentioned during the forum are really just hoped-for amounts. Adding to the contactless momentum, Barclaycard announced last month it would issue a Visa-branded credit card with the Oyster card application that lets 6 million commuters ride trains and buses in London. The card will have two contactless applications - the Oyster prepaid purse, which cardholders will have to reload as they do now, and the Visa contactless feature tied to the credit card account.
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