Visa Europe has announced its plans to launch Visa payWave contactless
card payments in the UK capital starting in autumn 2007 in partnership
with its member banks including HSBC, HBOS, Lloyds TSB, and Barclays.
With Visa payWave, a payment card only needs to be waved in front of
terminals with no need for it to be physically swiped or inserted into
point-of-sale device.
Mariano Dima, executive vice president, marketing, Visa Europe said:
“Visa payWave allows payments to be made instantaneously. Using wireless
technology, payment details are securely exchanged between a chip card
and a specially adapted point of sale terminal. Consumers don’t even
need to hand over their card, instead they simply wave it in front of
the terminal”.
“For high volume retail environments, such as coffee shops, express
grocery stores and newsagents, where transaction values are low and
speed of service is essential, Visa payWave offers a secure, convenient
and quick alternative to cash. Visa payWave is set to revolutionise how
we pay in Europe and London is going to be at the forefront.”
September will see the commercial roll out of the new Barclaycard Visa
credit card, developed with Transport for London* and Transys** and
featuring contactless payWave technology combined on the same card with
the Oyster transit function. Visa payWave cards will also be issued by
other Visa banks.
Visa’s next step will be to introduce contactless payWave facilities at
retailers around several of London’s busiest transport hubs: Canary
Wharf, Liverpool Street, Moorgate, Fenchurch Street, London Bridge,
Charing Cross and Waterloo Stations.
At this initial stage, it is expected around 200,000 consumers and about
2,000 retailers will participate. The London rollout will then act as a
catalyst for the widespread adoption of Visa payWave by retailers and
consumers across the UK.
Further Visa payWave launches are expected throughout Europe, and the
next one has just been announced in Turkey. Denizbank’s Sea&Miles cards
will feature payWave that can be used on Istanbul Seabuses and a number
of retailers. Other Visa payWave plans are already well developed in
France, Spain and Switzerland.
Banks can load the Visa payWave application onto a standard chip card
enabled for contactless payments, and retailers can easily add a Visa
payWave reader into an existing chip point of sale terminal with a small
amount of changes. For consumers there is the peace of mind that the
card is fitted with an additional security measure of an aggregate limit
for Visa payWave transactions, which is automatically re-set once your
PIN is entered. Periodically cardholders will be asked for their PIN to
ensure that the card remains with the genuine owner.
* In the UK, it is estimated that consumers make more than 27
billion cash transactions a year, worth a total of ÃÂã250 billion
* 80% of these purchases are for less than ÃÂã10
About Visa Europe
In Europe, there are nearly 321 million Visa debit, credit and
commercial cards. In the 12 months ending September 2006, those cards
were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of over
EUR1.2 trillion. For every EUR9 spent in Europe today, EUR1 is spent on a Visa
card.
Visa Europe is a membership association – an organisation owned and
operated by its 4,500 European member banks. As a dedicated European
organisation it is able to respond quickly to the specific market needs
of European banks and their customers – cardholders and retailers, and
to meet the European Commission’s objective to create a true internal
market for payments. Visa Europe is a part owner of Visa International,
the organisation that ensures global interoperability of products as
well as management of the Visa brand.
In October 2006, Visa announced that it intends to restructure its
entire worldwide organisation except Europe in order to create a new
public global corporation called Visa Inc. As a part of this
restructuring, Visa Europe will remain a membership association with an
exclusive, irrevocable and perpetual license in Europe.
Globally Visa is one of the world’s leading payment brands and has
unsurpassed acceptance at approximately 24 million acceptance locations
including one million ATMs.
* Transport for London is the organisation that runs London’s buses,
tubes, Tramlink, DLR and selected National Rail services.
** Transys is the consortium which designed and implemented Oyster and
which now manages the system on behalf of Transport for London.
