Banco Proamerica de Costa Rica has become the first bank in Latin America to let merchants accept contactless payments directly on an Android NFC smartphone, without the need for a separate card acceptance dongle.

The Costa Rican bank has teamed up with Mastercard for the launch of the new tap-on-phone service.

“By enabling contactless transactions regardless of the payment method (card, phone, wristband or any other contactless-enabled device) Tap on Phone offers a powerful tool to advance electronic payments adoption as it reduces acquirers’ operational costs for sourcing, selling and maintaining mPOS for merchants,” Mastercard says.

“In addition to offering a fast, safe and convenient experience to their customers, businesses will have multiple benefits such as: access to a transaction history on their mobile device, the ability to analyse payments by week, month, currency or amount, the possibility to enter their products and then select them from within the app, and to make purchases in both colones and dollars,” the bank adds.

“The investment made by the payments industry in Costa Rica and the Central Bank’s vision of reducing cash have built an ideal contactless payment ecosystem in the country and created the right conditions for Mastercard to enable and make the first implementation of this kind in LAC [Latin America and Caribbean],” explains Brice Van de Walle, Mastercard’s vice president of acceptance products for the region.

“Tap on Phone brings an enhanced consumer experience and gives small businesses the ability to accept in-person payments quickly by using a device they already have — their phone.”

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