Visa Europe says the adoption of NFC contactless payments has reached a ‘critical point’ across Europe.

More than 19 million transactions took place in March 2013, driving the total spend on contactless cards and smartphones equipped with a Visa payWave app to over €1 billion (£856 million).

Visa Europe is enhancing its mobile payment service with two new features: Multi-Currency and Immediate Payments. They’ll be available to any of the organisation’s member banks and payment service providers.

Immediate Payments is being launched in the UK this week, making it possible for consumers to receive money sent from other mobile phones in less than 30 minutes.

O2 UK has launched a new Mobile Point of Sale service that enables retailers to accept card payments on a smartphone or tablet.

The service, which is called mPOS, has been created in partnership with Visa Europe and Global Payments.