The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that bank can allow customers to transact with contactless card upto Rs 2000 without customers punching a separate PIN for authentication with the ‘tap and pay’facility. State Bank of India (SBI) has launched contact-less credit and debit cards sbiINTOUCH.

On 14th May 2015 , RBI has said that additional factor authentication is not required upto Rs 2000 per transaction and a customer can now just wave the card before the PoS machines to complete the transaction.

By tapping the card at a point of sale machines, the customer had to punch their PIN number as an additional factor authentication to avoid any chances of fraud.  The RBI has also asked to ensure that the contactless cards is a chip card adhering to EMV payment standard, so as to be acceptable across the existing card acceptance infrastructure which are EMV compliant.

What is sbiINTOUCH ?

1. sbiINTOUCH is based upon latest near-field technology (NFC) which provide custoner with Tap n Pay facility against the reader of Point of Sale Machine.
2. SBI is also proving a fraud liability cover of 1 lakh rupees on these cards.
3. SBI has joined league of private lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.

Advantages:

1. The move will boost electronic transactions at retail outlets.
2. It will also fasten the payments at toll services.
3. The relaxation comes on the day SBI launched sbiINTOUCH contactless card on 5000 PoS machines.

What is Tap and Pay?

Tap and Pay’ refers to the use of near-field communication ( NFC) technology, enabling users to make payments by waving or tapping the card near the contactless reader instead of swiping it.

Question:

Which is the first bank to launch contact less debit and credit card in India?

• ICICI Bank