Banque Populaire Group and Visa Europe announce the launch of a contactless payment pilot in Besançon

In Besançon, Banque Populaire Group is launching the Flash card pilot project for payment with the “contactless” Visa Carte Bleue card, which implements the Visa payWave technology. The experiment will run until next November with the collaboration of 200 retailers who are clients of Banque Populaire Bourgogne Franche-Comté. It will enable nearly 4,000 holders of the Banque Populaire Flash card to pay for purchases of less than 20 euro – in less than a second.

With the Visa payWave card, holders can pay for low value every day items in less than a second. At the checkout, the consumer just waves his card in front of a “contactless” reader, a light signals that authentification has taken place and the transaction has been approved. The process is simple, fast, and as secure as a traditional bank card, not to mention the fact that the card never leaves the holder’s hand.

Banque Populaire’s Flash card will be used to pay for purchases of less than 20 euro, which are usually paid in cash. For amounts exceeding 20 euro, the client will use the same card, but in the traditional way, by entering his PIN.

Contactless payment hinges on the inclusion of a radio antenna in the body of the card, which makes it possible to establish very short distance – a few centimetres – wireless communication with the reader, which is connected to a terminal.

So as to carry out this large technical pilot experimentation, the Banque Populaire Group leaned on Natixis Paiements’ expertise and highly specialised teams.

Roland Entz, Managing Director of Visa Europe in France explained: “We are pleased to be carrying out this new pilot project with the Banque Populaire Group and Natixis Paiements, which will be contributing to the development and enhancement of contactless solutions. The project also underscores Visa’s commitment to facilitate the roll out of contactless payment in France.”

The worldwide launch of Visa payWave programmes will speed up checkout times and facilitate transactions at retailers that accept Visa payWave cards. Similar programmes are being implemented in the UK, Spain, Turkey, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Guatemala.
In France, Visa Europe is also participating in the “Payez Mobile” contactless payment by mobile phone project in Strasbourg and Caen.

About Visa Europe 

In Europe, there are over 350 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards. In the 12 months ending December 2007, those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of over €1.3 trillion. 11.4% of consumer spending at point of sale in Europe is with a Visa card.

Visa Europe is a membership association - an organisation owned and operated by its 4,600 European member banks – that 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 170 countries.

For more information, visit www.visaeurope.com.

About Banque Populaire Group

Banque Populaire Group is a leading French cooperative Banking Group. It is headed by Philippe Dupont. It has 40,800 employees and a network of 20 regional Banques Populaires. It is active in every segment of retail banking. Since the acquisition of Foncia, which was finalised in May 2007, it also offers property-related services. With its 7,800,000 customers and 2,938 branches, Banque Populaire Group is one of the largest French retail banks. It is also a key player in financing, investment banking and services via 34.4%-owned Natixis, the listed entity in the Group.

For more information, visit www.banquepopulaire.fr

About Natixis and Natixis Paiements

With 23,000 employees in 68 countries, Natixis is the banking partner of businesses and institutions. Natixis develops its worldwide client network through five complementary areas of expertise: corporate and investment banking, asset management, private equity and private banking, services and receivables management.

Natixis Paiements offers solutions for the management of national, European and international payments encompassing all kinds of transactions and systems. In electronic banking, Natixis Paiements offers a broad range of services covering both the distribution of banking cards to personal customers, small businesses and companies, as well as activities for merchants. Natixis Paiements is supported by specialist teams and an effective IT system that handles all of the Banque Populaire Group's transactions, as well as transactions of other banks.