Visa payWave
Visa payWave makes Visa payments even faster
and more convenient for retailers and consumers alike. It’s a
contactless way of paying, meaning transactions can be made in less
than a second, without the need for a PIN.
Across Europe, by far the biggest opportunity is to capture more
lower value payments in areas where cash is the most common way to
pay.
In a typical European country:
- More than €1,000 in cash is in circulation per person
- Some 85 per cent of all transactions are made with cash
- Approximately 80 per cent of these transactions are for
payments of less than €15.
Therefore, introducing a cost-effective way of attracting lower
value payments is one of the biggest strategic imperatives for the
European payments industry.
Visa payWave – contactless payments for small sums
With Visa payWave, transactions can be made in less than a
second without the need for a PIN. All customers need to do is to
wave the card in front of a special card reader.
- For customers, it’s many times faster than paying with cash and
is also more convenient and secure
- For retailers, it offers quicker service, reduced queues, lower
cash-handling costs, less opportunity for losses and the promise of
higher transaction values. Because it runs on the existing EMV chip
infrastructure, Visa payWave means both payment service providers
and retailers can get even more from the investment they’ve already
made in chip technology.
The Visa payWave card readers can also be used to process
payments made via Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled mobile
phones – these are phones that have a pre-loaded Visa payment
application. Read more about innovations in mobile
Visa payWave: where next?
By the start of 2010, Visa payWave was live in Switzerland,
Turkey and the UK, with pilot programmes and implementation plans
well underway in most other European countries. More than six
million contactless Visa cards had been issued in Europe – a figure
that is set to double by the end of the year.
Some of Europe’s largest retail brands have committed to
contactless payments. Similarly, some of our biggest members are
developing their future payment card strategies around Visa
payWave.
Payments for journeys on public transport are one likely area of
expansion. We’re working closely with key European transport
companies like TfL in London and RATP in Paris to enable people to
pay for journeys with their Visa payWave cards – it’s quick and
convenient, with no need for separate tickets or travel cards.