Visa partners with SM for contactless transactions

Global payments technology company Visa has partnered with The SM Group to enable contactless payments in malls of the Sy-led conglomerate.

To be officially launched next week, the partnership will enable customers of SM Malls to transact via their Visa accounts.

Other contactless cards such as Beep and Mastercard also allow motorists to pay for toll fees on the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), and Manila-Cavite Expressway (Cavitex).

Aside from Visa, other companies such as PLDT also allow customers cashless transactions through Paymaya Philippines Inc. Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt) has its GCash for cashless payments.

Mynt earlier said it expects to double its subscriber base to 10 million this year.

PLDT’s digital innovations arm Voyager Innovations Inc.— which includes Paymaya— aims to increase coverage of digital financial services to 30 million by 2020.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas earlier said it wants to digitize 20 percent of all Philippine transactions by 2020. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News