This page is dedicated to journalists. Here you can find the latest news and corporate information about Bancontact MisterCash Company. You can download this document in pdf.

Press release - Brussels, 20 Februari 2013

Everyone knows Bancontact/Mister Cash as a reliable, handy solution for paying by card at the store or online with the payment button.

An innovative solution has now been added to the list: the Bancontact/Mister Cash mobile payments app. Provided they are connected to the internet, users can immediately start making payments to each other by opening the app on their mobile device.

How does it work? Just like buying something in a shop. The ‘receiver’ enters the amount on his or her device, thereby generating a unique QR code. Next, the ‘payer’ reads this QR code with his or her app, enters a secret PIN and the payment is immediately executed. As easy as taking a photo.

Bancontact/Mister Cash aims to provide the best solution for all types of everyday payments, including small amounts. That is why the mobile application allows for any payment up to €125. The new app is an excellent addition to the existing product range. Its possibilities are numerous.

Another great thing about the app is that any holder of a Bancontact/Mister Cash card (more than 15 million at present) can use it. It is not limited to one bank or one type of device, it is quasi universal.

The app is securely linked to the Bancontact/Mister Cash card of your choice. This is done by Atos Worldwide, the technology partner in this innovative project. The payments are the same transactions users have been familiar with since 1975. The money is credited to or debited from the current account and the transaction will appear on the normal bank statements.

Bancontact/Mister Cash will actively involve its users and partners during the last phase of the product development by launching a ‘co- creation’ initiative. Together with a number of banks that today represent together more than 90% of the Bancontact/Mister Cash cards, it will launch pilot projects and events aimed at critically evaluating and perfecting the app.

Together with its clients, Bancontact/Mister Cash will attempt to identify which of the app’s features have the most potential. It will be an interactive process of testing, examining, adjusting and refining.

The app will be commercially launched in 2014. The ambition is to become the standard for mobile payment in Belgium, just as Bancontact/Mister Cash is already the standard for payment by bank card.

The app was nominated for the 2013 Accenture Innovation Awards.

Press release - Brussels, 27 September 2012

In just over two years’ time, Proton will disappear as a payment method. Bancontact MisterCash Company reveals its plans to simplify the process for small electronic payments.

The majority of Belgian consumers prefer card payments for small purchases. To make this also more appealing for merchants, Bancontact MisterCash Company lowered its rates for payments under €10 in January 2012 and launched the campaign ‘Small amount? Use your card!’.

Additionally, from 2014 onwards it will be possible to make payments of less than €10 on payment terminals without numeric keyboard (such as vending machines and parking meters) without a need to confirm them with a PIN number. This will make paying faster and easier. The maximum amount for a non-PIN purchase is €10. Each bank determines how many non-PIN transactions a customer can make before they have to identify themselves again through a standard PIN-purchase.

This evolution is a further step towards a ‘contactless’ payment future which would merely require a consumer to hold up their chip card to a payment terminal in order to complete a small purchase.

The innovations introduced by Bancontact/Mister Cash today will enable consumers to carry out small payments directly through their current account. This is significantly more convenient than Proton which requires the consumer to preload.

This system also brings substantial benefits to the merchant as Bancontact/Mister Cash offers a strategic and very competitive solution for both small and large amount transactions, through one central payment system.

Bancontact/Mister Cash is also working hard on developing a transparent and safe system to make payments between smartphones. This would allow customers to settle payments wherever they are, paying back a friend immediately while having a drink together in a pub, for example.

Throughout 2013, the new payment application will be thoroughly tested across several pilot projects. The official product launch for the general public is planned for early 2014.

Currently, Bancontact/Mister Cash accounts for about 86% of all card payments in Belgium. Today, 15.7 million active cards are in use and 154,000 contact points in place: ATMs, shop payment terminals, online stores, parking and other. Bancontact/Mister Cash strives to make everyday payments easier and to reduce the number of cash transactions. Research¹ from 2011 shows that 70% of Belgians prefers card payments over cash payments.

Changing consumer preferences and new technological developments have turned today’s payment industry into a very dynamic one. With innovative product solutions in full compliance with strict safety and operational guidelines, Bancontact/Mister Cash makes electronic payments easy and hassle-free.

¹ Insites research by Atos Worldline in 2011

Press release - Brussels, 10th of May 2012

Research has shown that Bancontact/Mister Cash is the payment system most favoured by all Belgians. It scores highest in terms of security, rapidity and ease of use. This no doubt explains why 15 million cards are currently in circulation.

This is why shareholders recently decided to adapt the product to the European standards for card payments (SEPA). Tomorrow, Bancontact/Mister Cash will not only be a Belgian but also a truly European payment system.

Bancontact/Mister Cash continues to follow closely consumer needs. The recent reduction in the fee for small payments (less than €10) is a direct response to the customer request to pay by card, even for small daily purchases.

According to surveys carried out by iVox Research Facilitator (December 2011) and InSites (Atos Worldline survey of October 2011), nearly 99% of consumers know Bancontact/Mister Cash. This is hardly surprising because there are more Bancontact/Mister Cash cards in circulation in Belgium (15 million) than inhabitants!

When consumers were questioned about their reasons for choosing a particular method of payment, they regarded security as the most important (low risk of fraud or theft).

Not being able to pay by Bancontact/Mister Cash is annoying.

64% of consumers (70% of youngsters) want to use Bancontact/Mister Cash for purchases between 1 and 25 euros. In restaurants in particular, 57% of people questioned stated that it is (very) annoying to be unable to pay by card. 46% deplore not being able to use their card at the dentist (54% in the 19-35 age group), 37% at the family doctor and 33% at the hairdresser (40% in the 18-35 age group).

Merchants believe that Bancontact/Mister Cash is a safe payment system.

Business owners state that security is the most important factor in the choice of a method of payment. 88% of merchants believe that Bancontact/Mister Cash provides that security. Almost all (96%) agree that Bancontact/Mister Cash is an easy method of payment.

In order to encourage competition in this sector, the European Commission launched the SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) project. The aim is to make the different payment systems more uniform and thereby improving the operation of the market.

After detailed examination, the shareholders of Bancontact/Mister Cash decided, in February last year, to adapt their payment system to European standards. This move was very well received both by consumers and merchants.

The aim is that the infrastructure will be ready to accept new players by mid-2013.

The opening up of the Bancontact/Mister Cash payment system to other players on the market will cause a significant increase in competition. The more important standardisation will also facilitate the entry for new initiatives. On the long term, this will create more diversity in the offer for cardholders and merchants .

At this moment in time, Bancontact/Mister Cash has evidently not ceased development of its product. In this respect, SEPA is by no means the end of the story.

Since 1st January 2012, charges for payments of small amounts (“Low Value Payments”) by Bancontact/Mister Cash have been significantly reduced. This is an important step in the establishment of a cash-free society. Thanks to this reduction in fees, it will be more interesting for shopkeepers to invite clients to pay for low value purchases by card. The introduction of these new rates also increases the security and ease of payment both for merchants and their clients.

Clients want to pay more often by Bancontact/Mister Cash.

The majority of surveys conclude that consumers carry less and less cash. Why? For reasons of security, because they don’t have enough time to go to the cash dispenser or because they find that carrying cash is inconvenient. Both younger and older people declare that they would prefer to pay more often with their bank card.

Encourage electronic payments.

At the end of 2009, Vincent Van Quickenborne, who was then the Minister of Economics, announced he wanted to encourage electronic payments in Belgium. The aim of the financial sector is to achieve 2 billion card payment transactions per annum by 2015, around double the figure for 2010.

At this moment in time, there are already more than 15 million Bancontact/Mister Cash cardholders but the possibilities for growth are vast.

Currently, the use of electronic payments is well established in supermarkets and shopping centres. But there is still a big potential among small merchants, where most of the payments are still done with the use of cash money.

Bancontact MisterCash Company Press Office
c/o Dialogic Public Relations & Public Affairs
Vincent Bayer
Mail: vincent@dialogic-agency.com
Tel: 02 423 51 78