The contactless payment limit is to be increased from ILS 200 (US$56.35) to ILS 300 (US$84.52) “by the end of 2020”, the Bank of Israel has announced, “in order to improve dealing with the coronavirus pandemic”.

“The decision to raise the verification limit comes in parallel to the agreement by some of the marketing and pharmacy chains to accelerate the implementation of EMV during this challenging period with the help of the payment card committee led by the Bank of Israel,” the central bank says.

“In our assessment, an increasing number of merchants will be carrying out payment transactions using EMV technology in the near future.”

“As of today, about 85% of all payment card transactions made at merchants are for amounts that do not exceed ILS 300, and about 75% of them are below ILS 200,” it adds.

• Find full and up-to-date details of worldwide contactless limit increases in NFCW’s table of contactless transaction limit changes.

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