FCA confirms increase in contactless payment threshold from £45 to £100

By Megha Bhattacharya

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced changes to its rules, thus allowing for an increase in the single transaction contactless payment threshold from £45 to £100. The contactless threshold for multiple transactions has also increased from £130 to £300. FCA stated that the new limit is expected to improve convenience for consumers and merchants and drive the use of contactless card payments.

Sheldon Mills, Executive Director, Consumers and Competition said, “During the pandemic more people have been using contactless payments. We are changing our rules to help the industry continue to respond to the changing ways in which people prefer to pay. Increasing the regulatory limits allows industry to raise the contactless limit in the future to meet the evolving expectations of customers and merchants for fast but secure ways to pay. When making any change, it is important that the industry continues to ensure the right protections are in place to keep payments safe and secure. We encourage the industry to use these changes to support consumers and merchants during the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.”

FCA also stated that firms will be required to comply with the new thresholds and that the FCA may take appropriate measures, including enforcement action, where breaches of the limits set in new rules are identified.

Recently, the FCA published final rules for banning the sale of derivatives and exchange-traded notes. The organisation stated that the products cannot be reliably valued as these have a history of market abuse and financial crime, extreme volatility in cryptoasset price movements. There is also an inadequate understanding of cryptoassets by retail consumers and lack of legitimate investment need for retail consumers to invest. The ban came into effect on the 6th of January, 2021.