Visa Europe, DeviceFidelity and Akbank announce Europe’s first
launch of microSD-based contactless mobile payments
London, UK and Istanbul, Turkey 4th August 2010
– Visa Europe, Europe’s leading payment system, today announced
that it is launching Europe’s first microSD-based mobile payment
systems in Turkey with its technology partner, DeviceFidelity, and
Akbank, one of Turkey’s leading retail banks.
The project will demonstrate how the microSD memory card slot
common to many of today’s handsets can bring mobile payments
solutions to more consumers. Given that a relatively low number of
mobile devices presently offer integrated Near Field Communications
(NFC) technologies, the solution allows current mobile devices to
gain contactless mobile payment features and thus embraces all
mobile operators and a vast majority of smartphones currently in
use in the market. Using DeviceFidelity’s In2PayTM
microSD technology coupled with Visa’s contactless technology,
Akbank customers will benefit from the convenience and ease of
mobile payments.
Given the millions of smartphones offering microSD support, the
In2Pay solution combined with Visa’s contactless technology allows
mobile operators, financial institutions and transit authorities to
deploy their mobile financial offerings across a wide variety of
popular smartphone devices.
Mary Carol Harris, Head of Mobile, Visa Europe said: "One of the
key challenges to the success of mobile payments is the supply and
availability of NFC handsets. Until a majority of mobile handsets
offered in the market are supplied with integrated NFC, Visa is
proactively working with innovators like DeviceFidelity and
pioneers such as Akbank to harness the potential of new
technologies. These solutions make the future of payment real today
and are key to accelerating mobile payments in Turkey and across
Europe. Once again, Visa, through Akbank and our strategic
partners, are leading the mobile payments market."
Deepak Jain, President and CEO of DeviceFidelity said: “We have
always considered the European market to be at the leading edge of
NFC innovation. With our relationship with Visa Europe, we intend
to truly unlock the potential of NFC mobile payments, by enabling
contactless transactions on currently available and upcoming
popular user devices in Europe through the use of microSD.”
The project will commence with a number of Blackberry handsets
popular with Akbank’s customer base and will expand over time to
include an array of devices from manufacturers including HTC,
Samsung, LG, Nokia and Motorola. In addition to offering mobile
payments functionality, the In2Pay microSD will also continue to
offer digital storage, allowing users to take advantage of memory
expansion for music, video and photographs.
The DeviceFidelity In2Pay solution is based on an industry
standard Secure Element that is EMV and Global Platform compliant,
supports Javacard and MiFare and comes with Open Platform
architecture for seamless integration with Trusted Service Managers
(TSM) and Wallet developers. The In2Pay microSD can also be
personalized in high volume by traditional smart card
personalization bureaus using established bank approved secure
processes. DeviceFidelity has already started licensing the In2Pay
APIs to several European TSM providers, and banking software
developers, with the intent to roll out creative new mobile
commerce applications.
About Visa Europe
In Europe, there are over 399 million Visa debit, credit and
commercial cards. In the 12 months ending March 2010 those cards
were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of
€1.4 trillion. 11.2% of consumer spending at point of sale in
Europe is with a Visa card.
Visa Europe is owned and operated by more than 4,000 European
member banks and was incorporated in July 2004. In October 2007,
Visa Europe became independent of the new global Visa Inc., with an
exclusive, irrevocable and perpetual licence in Europe. As a
dedicated European payment system 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 enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around the world. In
addition, Visa/PLUS is one of the world’s largest global ATM
networks, offering cash access in local currency in over 200
countries.
About DeviceFidelity
DeviceFidelity, Inc. develops plug-and-play technologies that
empower a variety of institutions to deploy their services and
applications on millions of mobile phones worldwide. Its
patent-pending In2Pay microSD solution transforms any mobile phone
with a memory card slot into an interactive contactless transaction
device. Committed to bringing contactless innovation to the mobile
phone, the company has numerous patents pending in both U.S. and
international patent offices. DeviceFidelity is a private
corporation with headquarters in Richardson, Texas and offices in
Foster City, California.
For more information, go to www.devicefidelity.com
Contact details:
Visa Europe press
office
Tel: +44 (0)20 7795 5336
E-mail: europeanmedia@visa.com