Visa Inc. and Visa Europe have certified a number of NFC-enabled smartphones from Samsung, LG and Research In Motion for use with the Visa payWave contactless point of sale application. The Samsung Galaxy SII, LG Optimus NET NFC, BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 have all been added to the list of Visa-compliant payment products. This means financial institutions can work with mobile operators to offer consumers one of these mobile devices with Visa mobile payment functionality.
The newly certified devices host the Visa payWave application on a secure SIM card.
Sandra Alzetta, Head of Mobile Business Unit and Innovation Strategy at Visa Europe, said “The players are now in place for mobile payments to become a reality. We are working with our member banks, mobile network operators and key handset partners to ensure that future payment technologies are as easy, intuitive and secure as card-based transactions are today. Today’s announcement plays a significant role in getting those new technologies into the hands of the consumer. It is a very exciting time for us all.”