The deployment of contactless infrastructure at London 2012 will be the catalyst for a wider take-up of the technology, according to The Guardian. Mark Austin, Visa Europe’s head of contactless, says every sales terminal at Olympic venues will allow wave-and-pay purchases for cardholders. For instance McDonald’s, which claims to be building the world’s largest restaurant on the Olympic site, will offer contactless payments.

Elsewhere in the city, users of public transport will also benefit from new payment technology. Card-based payments will be possible on the city’s 8,000 buses in time for this summer’s Olympics with trains (both overground and underground) following before the end of 2012. More than 2,000 taxis will offer contactless payments too.

The focus of the report is card technology but moves are also planned to boost mobile phone-based payments during London 2012 including Visa Europe’s plan to launch a NFC handset linked to the Olympics.

A range of UK retailers is also moving towards contactless card technology including Greggs, the Co-op, Wilkinson, Subway and Superdrug. The technology is already present in some chains such as Boots, Pret A Manger and McDonald’s.

The report also notes while Barclays and Barclaycard have been leaders in adopting contactless technology (they are working with UK mobile operator Orange), other UK financial institutions have lagged behind. HSBC and Nationwide for instance have yet to issue a contactless card. Meanwhile Royal Bank of Scotland (including NatWest) has “some” contactless debit and credit cards in issue and wants to build on that number.  Rival Lloyds say it has 1.5 million contactless in use, planning to increase that number to 2 million by the summer.