London, Nov 21 (IANS): Tapping smartphones on high-tech contactless cash machines, bank customers will now be able to withdraw 100 pounds (around Rs 8,414) in cash, reports said.

The scheme by Barclays -- a British multinational banking and financial services company -- is set to start in December and would be the first of its kind, the Telegraph reported on Monday.

The initiative, for the Android smartphone users, would require the customers to first touch their mobile device or contactless debit card against the machine and then enter their pin on the cash-point," the report said.

Barclays is also set to introduce a facility on their mobile app in January 2017, which would require customers to enter their pin and then tap their device against the machine for withdrawals.

The contactless machines would make it harder for criminals to misuse customers' accounts by "protecting them from card skimming".

"These are machines that we have designed ourselves, so they're unique," said Ashok Vaswani, the head of Barclays' Personal and Corporate banking division.

"We hope this technology will give thieves fewer opportunities to steal money or cards by distracting customers," Vaswani added.

Barclays aims to have about 500 of the new cash points operating in 200 branches across Britain by January before a wider roll-out of the technology, including to high-street ATMs, the report mentioned.