Dive Brief:
Mastercard is bringing its contactless payments capability to Fitbit’s first smartwatch, which will allow wearers to pay for items by tapping the watch near a contactless payment terminal, according to a Mastercard press release.
The Fitbit Ionic, which was announced this week and will be available in October, will reportedly support payments through Visa, American Express and other networks, according to The Verge and other published reports.
The contactless payments capability also leverages Mastercard’s tokenization technology, under which a unique alternate number or “token” for the 16-digit card number can be found on the front or back of a payment card.
