A new study from Juniper Research has found that the annual transaction value of online, mobile and contactless payments will reach $3.6 trillion (€3.2 trillion) this year, up by 20 per cent from $3 trillion in 2015. The research company said the recent surge in contactless payments would continue, fuelled by further scaling up of infrastructure rollout and increased card payment limits in key markets. It also anticipated that while cards will account for 90 per cent of contactless payments over the next five years, the deployment of near field communications (NFC) payments by high-profile players such as Apple and Samsung would increase consumer awareness and usage of smartphones to fulfil transactions. Release