MasterCard is planning to make contactless acceptance a standard across Europe for merchants accepting MasterCard and Maestro by 2020.
The decision comes after a report by PRIME Research revealed consumers in UK, France, Russia and Italy enjoy using contactless payments, and they expect merchants to adopt the technology soon.
The study was carried out between 1st November 2013 and 30th April 2014 across 56 markets and 26 languages in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Rim, with the focus primarily on Europe.
MasterCard Europe President Javier Perez said: "NFC-enabled cell phone shipments are to soar fourfold in the next five years according to IHS Technology."
"MasterCard wants to ensure that mobile and contactless payments are safe and simple wherever you are in Europe making it easy to pay how you want when you want."
According to MasterCard the existing Point of sale (POS) terminals can be replaced only by 2020, and the new POS terminals must stick to the new standard upon operation from 2016.
Master Card head of contactless payments Europe Chris Kangas said: "In 2013 alone the number of MasterCard and Maestro contactless transactions across Europe tripled and the volume spent on those transactions increased four times."
