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Small Business Owners Not Ready To Accept Contactless Payments

Newtek Business Services, Inc.has announced the findings of its SB Authority Market Sentiment Survey, a monthly window into the concerns of independent business owners. Based on a poll of over 1,000 respondents, the key finding from the October survey is 82% of business owners do not currently have a POS terminal or method of taking credit and debit cards ready to accept near field communication (NFC) contactless payments, such as Apple Pay. Additionally, 93% of business owners are not planning on upgrading their existing terminals to be able to accept contactless NFC payment options.


The full October 2014 results showed the following:

 Poll Question      Poll Answer Percentage
Is your existing POS terminal 
and method of taking credit and debit cards ready to accept Near Field
Communication contactless
payments, like Apple Pay?
  Yes  4%
    No 82%
    Unsure 14%
       
Are you planning to upgrade your
POS terminal(s) to make Contactless
NFC payment options like Apple Pay
available to your customers?
  Yes 7%
    No 93%

              
Barry Sloane, Chairman, President and CEO of The Small Business Authority(®) commented, "A valuable attribute of our polling process is that its views are real and are entirely independent from our own business philosophies, initiatives and ways of thinking. Our recent October poll depicts indifference towards contactless mobile payments and the use of contactless/NFC-type communications in the near future. This somewhat surprising sentiment and information source tells us that there is a significantly greater need within the payments industry to explain and demonstrate the benefits and significance of mobile and contactless payments to merchants and merchant acquirers. Most of our clients still do not understand the new Europay, MasterCard and Visa ("EMV") requirements and clearly do not see the importance and value of mobile payments away from traditional swipe or contact payment sources."

Mr. Sloane continued, "We believe consumers will ultimately determine payment methods among the most effective choices, and merchants will adapt to consumers' demands and needs. In particular, the younger generation, which is the growth market, uses their mobile phones for everything, and this future force of consumption will drive the method by which consumers pay. This poll is extremely valuable and useful in analyzing the current state and knowledge of merchants' and merchant acquirers' feelings about contactless payments, which we feel will change dramatically over time. If mobile payments provide more security, lower costs and greater convenience, the current state of affairs and sentiment of business owners will change as it will be clearly be in the best interest of consumers and merchants to adopt new technologies. We will continue to poll our clients periodically and note the trends."
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