NFC Times Exclusive Insight – With contactless card payment growing more popular in Europe and high-profile NFC mobile-payments services such as Apple Pay starting to gain a foothold there, payment schemes are preparing to significantly raise or eliminate caps on transaction value to try to encourage even more growth in contactless and NFC payments.

MasterCard Worldwide is the latest to make noise about its plans. The payment network said recently it would announce new specifications for European retailers accepting MasterCard and Maestro contactless payments, including mobile NFC payments. MasterCard has released few details on the specifications so far, but said it planned to eliminate caps on transaction values in Europe within the next two years.

“By 2017 when these standards are fully adopted in Europe it will be possible to pay at all contactless acceptance points with NFC smartphones for all values,” said the company in a statement.