Contents

• COVID-19: UK Finance increases spending limit for contactless card payments
• COVID-19: EBA statement on consumer and payment issues

COVID-19: UK Finance increases spending limit for contactless card payments

On 24 March 2020, UK Finance has announced that, from 1 April 2020, it is increasing the spending limit for contactless card payments from £30 to £45. The decision to increase the limit has been taken following consultation between the finance and payments industry and the retail sector.

UK Finance explains that this development follows similar increases in several other EU countries over the last week (that is, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Malta and Turkey). These changes were already being considered by the industry in the UK. However, that process has been expedited as part of the industry's response to the COVID-19 outbreak to support consumers who choose to pay at this time using contactless card payments.

Given the pace at which this change is being rolled-out, UK Finance expects that the new limit will take some time to be introduced across all retailers.

For consumers spending more than £45, UK Finance notes that there are other ways to pay, for example through Chip & PIN, cash and alternatives such as mobile payments which do not have an upper limit when authenticated through biometric technologies.

COVID-19: EBA statement on consumer and payment issues

On 25 March 2020, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a statement on consumer and payment issues in the light of COVID-19. Without prejudice to any conditions imposed by legally mandated moratoria, the EBA:

• calls on financial institutions to ensure that they act in the interest of the consumer;
• reminds financial institutions to grant such measures in compliance with EU law, such as the Mortgage Credit Directive and the Consumer Credit Directive, in particular, the importance of full information disclosure, especially of any potential charges and costs, and the transparency and clarity of terms and conditions;
• notes the importance of careful consideration from a legal and reputational perspective of any new and additional charges specifically introduced in relation to contingency measures, and any cross selling of products to consumers;
• calls on financial institutions offering general temporary measures to note that, given that such measures may not automatically lead to loan reclassification from a prudential perspective, the acceptance of temporary measures should not automatically lead to negative implications for the consumer's credit rating;
• encourages consumers and merchants to take necessary sanitary precautions when providing, or making use of, point-of-sales terminals to pay for goods in-store that require a PIN, including by considering all payment methods available, such as contactless or remote payments; and
• calls on payments services providers (PSPs) to contribute to measures that limit the spread of COVID-19 and, to that end, to facilitate consumers' ability to make payments without the need for physical contact, by making use of the existing exemption from strong customer authentication (SCA) available for contactless payments at the point of sale under Article 11 of the regulatory technical standards (RTS) on SCA and secure communications under the revised Payment Services Directive. In the event that thresholds set by PSPs for using this exemption are below the threshold allowed under the RTS, the EBA additionally encourages PSPs to increase, where possible, these limits up to the maximum thresholds of EUR 50 per transaction as allowed under the RTS.

The EBA will support issuing and acquiring PSPs' efforts to focus on customers by removing the obligation for national competent authorities to report by 31 March 2020 their readiness to meet the SCA requirements for e-commerce card-based transactions. All other requirements set out in the EBA's October 2019 opinion remain unchanged, but it will continue to monitor events and assess which, if any, additional measures need to be taken.

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