Belgium's e-payments to be 'faster and safer'

23 June 2004

BRUSSELS – Consumers across Belgium will soon be able to complete in-store transactions with bankcards twice as fast as they do now, it was reported Wednesday.

Some 500 merchants are set to enter a final stage of testing of the new devices for Bancontact/Mister Cash payments 1 July, paving the way for the formal introduction of the new and improved system in stores and supermarkets across the country in September.

The new scanning devices will be grey, cube-shaped and have much larger buttons than the ones now in use, making it easier for those with vision problems to type in their secret codes.

They are also set up to allow customers to more easily keep prying eyes from seeing the numbers.

For merchants, there are also added benefits, such as being able to reduce costs by using the internet for transactions rather than conventional telephone lines as is now the case.

Some 350 hotels and restaurants already own the new devices; by the end of this year, the number is expected to balloon to 3,500.

More technological advances are in store for next year, when testing on a new mobile-phone payment system is to begin for formal introduction in 2006.

Subject: Belgian news

Belgium’s e-payments to be ‘faster and safer’