BMO Bank of Montreal has added at new payment feature called MasterCard PayPass to its Mosaik MasterCard cards.

This new feature lets customers quickly pay for purchases at merchants with MasterCard PayPass payment terminals without having to swipe their card — they simply “Tap & Go”. There’s no need to hand over the card to the cashier and in most instances, no signature is required.

BMO is the first credit card issuer among the big six banks in Canada to integrate “Tap & Go” technology into a credit card.

PayPass is currently available at a growing number of locations such as Tim Hortons, Cineplex Odeon, Petro-Canada, and Loblaws and affiliated stores. McDonald’s Canada has announced that they will begin accepting PayPass transactions in 2008 at select locations.

Nancy Marescotti, Director, BMO Mosaik MasterCard, says PayPass was introduced as a way to cut down on transaction time and to decrease consumers’ wait-times at check-out, simplifying the way they pay.

Marescotti adds that the launch of PayPass presents an excellent opportunity to position BMO Mosaik MasterCard as a leader in convenient, innovative payment technologies.

The cards use radio frequency technology to securely transmit payment details wirelessly between the MasterCard PayPass device and the merchant’s terminal. As a result, cardholders need to do nothing more than tap or wave their credit card against the MasterCard PayPass payment terminal and the transaction is instantly processed. “One of the benefits of PayPass is that the card never leaves the customer’s hands so he or she can have greater peace of mind,” says Marescotti. “And PayPass transactions are covered by Zero Liability providing the same layer of security and protection that customers are accustomed to having with their BMO Mosaik MasterCard.”

The cards include magnetic stripe technology, so the cards can also be used in a traditional manner anywhere MasterCard is accepted around the world.