Oliver Steeley of the firm, speaking on BBC Radio Five Live’s Wake Up To Money, said shorter queues are likely to be one result of the new system.

Mastercard is launching its PayPass contactless card today, which will enable users to swipe the plastic over a reader for purchases of up to £10.

This will eliminate the need for inputting a pin and works in a similar way to the Transport for London Oyster travel card.

According to Mr Steeley, the process is “very simple really” and the transaction takes “less than half a second”.

He added that safeguards are in place to prevent fraudulent use of contactless debit and credit cards.

Mr Steeley explained that contactless functionality has been integrated with chip and pin technology.

“So after a number of consecutive contactless transactions you will be prompted for your pin in the normal way,” he said.

Mastercard notes on its website that participating banks will automatically send a PayPass debit or credit card to customers as past of its normal re-issuance cycle.

Participating banks include Bank of Scotland, Barclaycard, Halifax, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Lloyds TSB and Citi.

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