Deloitte To Offer Blockchain-based Contactless Payment Cards

One of the leading audit and advisory services companies, Deloitte, has collaborated with SETL, a London-based fintech company, and Metro Bank to produce a contactless card for payments using blockchain technology.

According to a report by Reuters, the payment card has been developed for customers of the FTSE 250-listed Metro Bank. An initial test with over 100 users has been successfully completed. Now, new cards are expected to go into commercial production by the end of 2017, once regulatory approval is granted.

The new payment cards use Deloitte's Smart Identity blockchain system, with customer identity records stored and certified by Deloitte and then sent to SETL in order to set up user credentials. This should allow merchants to offer payment services to their customers for a much lower cost. However, the new contactless card will use fiat currencies.

David Myers, a Deloitte partner said: 

“What this allows people to do is to effectively make a payment from their account to the merchant’s account, completely encrypted end-to-end, without having to go through all the existing very expensive legacy infrastructure.”