Wearable tech ‘could overtake bank cards’

Wearable payment methods could overtake credit cards within as little as five years, a financial expert has announced.

Those attending the Olympics next month will get to try out the new payment method first hand as Visa issuing athletes with a wristband allowing them to make payments from anywhere in the Olympic complex.

Mark Sievewright, the president of credit union solutions at the US financial services company Fiserv, said that this would mean that customers could always be connected to the banks.

He added: “The revolution that we have seen in payments means that now, right now and progressively over the next five to seven years, the plastic card might not be the universal tool with which to pay.”

Mr Sievewright was addressing the World Credit Union Conference in Belfast.

He said: “We are now talking about moving money through technology that we wear.

“Just imagine that phone that we had back in 1994 which now fits into our pockets, wallets and purses can now be used to move money.”

The new technology named, The Internet of Things, is designed to aid communication, improve ease of use and provide immediacy, the expert said.

It involves connecting items like white goods, heating controls, buildings or items of clothing to the internet to allow them to be remotely operated.

He said: “We can look forward to a future where the connectivity we have with the internet, with our credit union, is everywhere, 24/7.”