For the first time, contactless accounted for more than half of purchases by bank card in the first half of 2021. Its use is now as secure as that of payments with use of the secret code.
It seems a long time ago when some specialists were alarmed by the risks of contactless fraud. The Banque de France presented Thursday the figures of its Observatory for the security of means of payment for the 1st half of 2021. And, for the first time, contactless payments by bank card appear as as secure as other convenience paymentsincluding those made by inserting the card and typing its code.
The contactless fraud rate is thus 0.010%, down from 2020 (0.013%). That of proximity payments is stable, at 0.009%. It is more than 10 times less than online card payments (0.149%) or checks (0.0973%). All types of card payments combined, contactless does not represent only 3% of the amounts diverted.
57% of proximity payments
This decrease is part of a context of intensification of the use of contactless. In the first half of 2021, it represented for the first time more than half of local payments (mainly in-store payments): 57% precisely, compared to 46% in 2020. That is 3.3 billion transactions in just 6 months, compared to 5.1 billion over the 12 months of 2020.
Mobile payment is growing…
Other types of contactless payment are also progressing, in use and in safety: those made with a smartphone. The mobile payment fraud rate (Apple Pay, Paylib, etc.) was almost halved between 2020 and the first half of 2021, going from 0.091% to 0.048%.
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Here again, this decrease occurs in a context of development in use: over the first 6 months of 2021, 141 million purchases were paid for this way (for 2.8 billion euros spent), more than for the whole of 2020. However, mobile payment remains very much in the minority: 1.5% of the sums paid.
… the instant transfer too
Another new means of payment is booming: the instant transfer. Admittedly, it is still very much in the minority: 2.6% of all transfers in the 1st half of 2021. This is more, however, than for the whole of 2020.
Here too, this growing use is accompanied by a sharp drop in fraud. “This is good news: the fraud rate has been divided by 4 compared to 2020”, welcomed Pierre Bienvenu, deputy head of the Banque de France’s cashless means of payment monitoring service.
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(1) Indicator used by the Banque de France to assess the volume of fraud on a means of payment. It is calculated by relating the amounts defrauded to all the sums paid.