Matthew Hudson, head of business development for fares and ticketing at Transport for London (TfL) is “not convinced” about mobile payments using NFC, according to Techworld who reported a speech he made at the Westminster eForum on the future of digital payments.
TfL is behind the successful Oyster contactless card ticketing system. There are currently 52 million Oyster cards in circulation in the UK – twice the number of Visa contactless cards, making TfL the leading contactless card issuer in the country, said the report.
At the end of last year, the organisation started to enable travellers to pay for fares using contactless bank cards on London buses. The tube will follow in November this year.
But Hudson is more sceptical about paying for fares using NFC handsets. He says there are too many stakeholders involved in NFC mobile payments, including mobile operators, handset vendors, banks, retailers and potential advertisers.
“It’s taken ages. How much money is there to make with all these parties trying to get a piece of it?” asked Hudson. “We’ve just sat back and said we’re not interested. When you’ve worked it out, come back to us and we’ll engage.”
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