ICICI Bank launched the country's first contactless debit and credit cards that use the near-field communication technology, enabling one to make payments by just waving the card near merchant terminals instead of swiping the same.

The near field communication (NFC) technology provides customers improved convenience of speed and security over traditional cards as these cards can complete a transaction faster and be more secured as they remain with customer.

The bank has introduced these two cards in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Gurgaon to begin with and it has installed over 1,200 PoS machines capable of accepting contactless payments in these cities.

The bank has launched two cards with the new technology -- the Coral contactless credit cards and the Expressions wave debit cards -- and both can also be used as regular cards at all merchant terminals (in other cities), the bank said.

Commenting on the launch, bank's executive director Rajiv Sabharwal said the bank expects these cards to be a big game changer in the payment industry as the key advantages of these cards, which are powered both by

Visa and MasterCard are speed and security.

It can be noted that ICICI Bank was amongst the first in the country to launch Internet, mobile, tab and touch banking etc services.

Source: IBN