Visa Europe demonstrating range of live mobile payment apps from across Europe at MWC

• Seven Visa Europe member banks currently live with highly innovative Android apps using Host Card Emulation (HCE) for secure contactless payment – Over 30 banks committed to go live by the end of 2015
• Interest in HCE-based services illustrates the accessibility and simplicity of cloud-based mobile payments for banks and consumers
• A number of banks from markets including Finland, Italy, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey will be showing their services in public for the first time at Visa’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) booth – Hall 6, booth #6D40

Visa Europe, together with a number of its member banks, will be demonstrating a range of live mobile payment apps from across Europe at Mobile World Congress, with services from a number of markets being shown in public for the first time -as banks continue to deploy mobile contactless payment applications using the latest versions of Android and its native Host Card Emulation functionality.

Interest in HCE technology as a basis on which banks can develop and launch branded mobile contactless payment apps to customers with an Android NFC smartphones, is fast gaining momentum: seven projects are already live in five Visa Europe countries, including Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and Turkey, with commitments from over thirty banks to launch their ‘Visa Cloud-based Payments’ applications in Google Play, by the end of 2015.

Retail banks can implement a mobile payment proposition for their customers in a simple and autonomous manner working with Visa’s Cloud-based Payments specifications. HCE and Visa’s Cloud-based Payments specifications offer the bank an ability to quickly and easily offer a secure mobile contactless payments service to consumers in possession of an NFC-enabled smartphone running the latest versions of the Android OS.

The Visa Europe projects have been made possible through Visa’s Cloud-based Payments specification which incorporates the use of HCE technology.

Jeremy Nicholds, executive director for mobile at Visa Europe commented:

“The number of banks set to deploy Visa Cloud-based Payments by the end of the year serves to reinforce our prediction that 2015 will be a ‘tipping point’ year for mobile – we will start to notice increasing numbers of consumers using their mobile phone to make contactless payments in our favourite stores. Visa’s Cloud-based Payments initiative serves to help our member banks take advantage of the huge addressable market that now exists for ‘HCE’ solutions across Europe – we are seeing a great deal of interest in these services and the banks who have chosen to invest in this area are already reporting some very impressive figures around usage and interaction with their customers.”

“Ever since Google first announced the inclusion of HCE within the KitKat version of its Android OS, Visa has worked closely with member banks and other financial and technology institutions to ensure NFC payments using this functionality, would meet the stringent requirements Visa expects of any payment technology carrying our brand. The successes we and our partners are seeing with HCE technology in Europe, reflects our ongoing strategy to collaborate with a variety of partners including leading mobile network operators, handset manufacturers and operating systems, with an end goal of ensuring our member banks can use a range of solutions to implement mobile payment capabilities and offer innovative new ‘mobile-first’ services to their customers.”

Visa Europe spokespeople and representatives who have launched HCE solutions including BBVA, CartaSi, Intesa Sanpaolo Banks, OP Financial Group, and TC Ziraat Bankasi, will be available to discuss their Visa Cloud-based Mobile Payments implementations at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from March 2-5. The Visa booth is in Hall 6, booth #6D40.