A report from Juniper Research reveals that the Near Field Communications retail payments market will exceed $180 billion by 2017, up seven times over 2012.

Leading regions of North America, Western Europe, and Asia are responsible for 90 percent of this market value.

According to the report, retailers remain less convinced of the benefits of NFC payments over existing card technologies and are therefore less willing to invest in contactless infrastructure.

“This is a critical time for the NFC retail payments market,” Dr. Windsor Holden, coauthor of the report, said in a statement.  “Despite the significant progress being made today, the full potential of the market can only be fulfilled if all ecosystem players are equally committed and mobile wallet consortia remain in place.”

JCK