NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Contactless payments in Europe, almost exclusively from cards, increased by more than 170% in the fourth quarter of 2014, MasterCard Europe has announced, and the payment network cited NFC payments projects in Europe as a positive sign, while promoting the prospect for host-card emulation-based launches.

MasterCard didn't release transaction figures, however, and although use of contactless cards is undoubtedly becoming more popular in Europe and beyond, with more cards and point-of-sale terminals rolling out and more consumers using them, the press release from MasterCard mainly cited high transaction percentages in Central and Eastern Europe, where both MasterCard and Visa Europe are believed to be subsidizing terminals and also cards, to showcase the technology.

MasterCard said 52% of MasterCard-branded credit and debit transactions in stores are contactless in the Czech Republic, followed by 33% in Poland, 18% in Hungary and 17% in Slovakia. MasterCard also cited data from The UK Cards Association showing spending on contactless cards in the UK in 2014 more than tripled from the previous year to over £2.32 billion (US$3.6 billion) in 2014, though there was no percentage of contactless transactions compared with all in-store card transactions released for the UK.