ICICI Bank, recently launched the country's first ‘contactless' debit and credit cards, which will enable customers to make electronic payments by just waving the cards near the merchant terminal in lieu of dipping or swiping them.

These cards are based on the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, which provides customers the improved convenience of speed as these cards require significantly less time than traditional cards to complete a transaction alongwith enhanced security as they remain in control of the customer.

The Bank has introduced these cards in Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Mumbai to begin with. Over 1200 EDC machines capable of accepting contactless payments have been set-up across merchants in these cities.

The merchants include quick service restaurants, coffee shops, shopping marts and fuel stations where fast transactions are much required. The Bank plans to shortly extend this facility to other cities as well.

Both the contactless credit and debit cards can be used as regular cards at all MasterCard/Visa enabled merchant terminals, even those which are not enabled for contactless transactions.

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