ING is working on a possibility to transfer contactless money to the person standing next to you by pointing your smartphone at him. The technology that the bank has developed for this with the Eindhoven chip group NXP is already ready.
The idea is that you will soon see in your bank app who is walking around in the area and at what distance they are from you. Then you select who you want to transfer money to. The recipient will then receive a confirmation request and if he accepts this, the payment has been made.
Unlike existing methods to transfer money easily, it is no longer necessary to first get someone’s username, email address or phone number.
The new payment method uses ultra-wideband (UWB), a wireless technology that allows a large amount of data to be sent at a high speed. The plan is now to test NEAR, as the new payment method is called, first within a small group of people. That should happen later this year.
However, it will probably take a while before we can all transfer money in this way. The new payment method is also only possible on the latest Samsung phones. It is not yet possible for iPhone users, because Apple must first give permission for the use of its own technology.