Moneycontrol news

In a step to boost the Digital India programme, the Finance Ministry has asked banks to start issuing near field communication (NFC)-enabled credit and debit cards to their customers, as that would enable the government to expand the use of card payments beyond merchant transactions, the Economic Times reported.

In a letter to chief executives of banks, the ministry highlighted that NFC-enabled or contactless cards are not only secure and convenient for digital payments, but push up adoption of digital transactions in the country, given that most point-of-sale (PoS) terminals are already capable of reading such cards.

“As and when cards need to be re-carded, then at that stage the new cards being issued can be NFC enabled/contactless and whenever new cards are being issued they could also be NFC enabled/contactless,” read the letter circulated by the ministry.

NFC-enabled or contactless credit and debit cards are issued by banks that allow users to tap compatible PoS machines instead of having to swipe a card which requires physical contact.

The ministry further pointed out in the note that these NFC-enabled cards can ease their usage for mass transit like metros, railways and buses where consumers can tap their cards and the ticket price can be directly debited from their bank accounts.

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