London pushes contactless payments for busking

London has enlisted iZettle for a contactless payments system that enables the city's buskers to accept money from cashless fans.

2 comments

London pushes contactless payments for busking

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

Following a successful trial, London mayor Sadiq Khan, iZettle, and the Busk for London organisation will begin rolling out contactless mPOS card readers to buskers throughout the city.

"Now, more Londoners will be able to show their support to the capital's brilliant, talented street performers," says Khan.

Performer Charlotte Campbell has been testing the system, setting up her card reader to automatically accept fixed donations of £2, telling the BBC that it has had "a significant impact on contributions".

Last week a British university student unveiled her own contactless payment system for street performers, although her effort includes an app that provides up-to-date earnings and expenses feedback and can be used to manage shows, track potential queues in popular locations and share promotional content.

Stockholm-based iZettle is in the process of being acquired by American giant PayPal in an all-cash deal valued at $2.2 billion.

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Comments: (2)

A Finextra member 

Why not extend the facility to the homeless as well and give them a pre-paid card to spend any balance on food / shelter but not alcohol or drugs?

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

Soon after the de/remonetization of high value currency notes in India in 2016, there was a severe cash crunch. To tide over the crisis, the government urged people to switch to digital payments and gave the example of a homeless person who started started accepting donations via PayTM, the largest mobile wallet in India (and perhaps the world). I cringed at this and thought how about eliminating the scourge of homelessness in the first place. Looks like it's here to stay everywhere. I'll now cringe less. 

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