Ten years of contactless payment: a bird’s eye view
- Insights
Hans Sjouke Koopal
Sr Press Officer
This year marks the tenth anniversary of contactless payment in the Netherlands. A milestone that highlights the rapid pace of technological progress and the wide acceptance of this means of payment. With the number of contactless payments soaring to 100 million in the two years, the Dutch were exceptionally quick to embrace this technology. Annerie Vreugdenhil, Chief Commercial Officer Personal & Business Banking bij ABN AMRO: ‘It’s remarkable for a technological innovation to meet such wide acceptance. We now process around 2 million transactions per day, 85% of which are contactless. We’re going to keep on innovating to offer our clients the best experience."
The transition to digital payment methods started in 2014, when contactless payment became possible in more and more places in the Netherlands. In that year, one in six point-of-sale terminals offered it, and by year-end 2015, all 5.2 million ABN AMRO clients had contactless payment-enabled debit cards. A crucial factor in the penetration of this technology.
Innovation marched on with the launch of Tikkie in June 2016, enabling payment requests through WhatsApp. In 2018, ABN AMRO introduced passive wearables such as watches, and by September of that same year, contactless payment had become more popular than traditional PIN transactions. A recent survey by the Dutch central bank (DNB) showed that contactless payment is now preferred by the majority of people of all ages in the Netherlands. And whereas in 2016 two out of three young adults indicated that they did not want to make contactless payments with a mobile phone, today seven in ten 18 to 35-year-olds say they no longer pay with a physical debit card.
Led by Annerie Vreugdenhil, ABN AMRO continues to invest in the further digitalisation of banking. She stresses how the bank is embracing the payment revolution as part of its ongoing digitalisation drive, which enables clients to manage their banking affairs online whenever and wherever it suits them. ABN AMRO’s service offering can now be accessed almost entirely remotely, a significant transition from the banking experience we once knew.
“Thanks to digitalisation, we can leverage the talents of our advisers. While in the past we needed many of our employees to process transactions, we can now reallocate them towards personally supporting our clients,” says Vreugdenhil. This has made the bank’s service not only more efficient but also more personal. For example, ABN AMRO now has 200 Help with Banking advisers offering support to clients who haven’t yet acquired the digital skills they need. Vreugdenhil explains, “We’re very much aware of our role in society, and we’re also here for less digitally skilled clients. That’s why we’ve doubled the number of Help with Banking advisers this year.”
Timeline of the payment revolution: in 10 years contactless has become the new standard