Contactless conundrum: More blind spots on the nature of proximity payments

The Covid-19 pandemic has given proximity payments a shot in the arm, but clarity on their nature is still elusive

All digital transactions — where there is no touch or contact — are contactless,” asserts Ashish Ahuja, chief operating officer at Fino Payments Bank. In his view, NFC (near-field communications), RFID (radio-frequency identification) and QR code transactions are contactless. So too, is the process of onboarding customers through video-KYC (know your customer) or the bio-metric Aadhaar-enabled payment system.
 

When AGS Transact Technologies launched a solution that allows withdrawal of cash at automated teller machines by scanning a QR code, it was positioned as a “touchless” initiative, not a contactless one. “We felt that scanning via the QR code was technically