Fifty Credito Valtellinese employees will be given a Nokia mobile phone equipped with the “TELLCARD MOBILE” V PAY contactless application. Simply by waving the phone in front of a contactless reader the phone can be used to make purchases at 180 locations in the northern cities of Sondrio, Chiavenna, Morbegno, Tirano and Bormio. Mobile payments can be made using the same contactless acceptance infrastructure already deployed for the TELLCARD V PAY project. The mobile phones used in the trial are equipped with NFC (Near Field Communication) functionality. NFC enables the secure exchange of payment details between a contactless-enabled mobile phone and a standard contactless reader at the point of sale by bringing the devices within 4 cm of each another. To make a purchase with the mobile phone the merchant just needs to enter the amount of the transaction and the consumer waves the phone in front of the reader. The transaction is completed and the screen indicates that the purchase was carried out successfully. According to Davide Steffanini, General Manager Visa Europe in Italy, “Italy is one of the most advanced mobile phone markets in the world. By combining the sophistication of mobile with cutting-edge innovation in payments technology we can only begin to imagine what the future of payments will be in Italy. It is no surprise that Italy has been chosen to test out the first V PAY mobile project in Europe. Following the debut of contactless technology in Valtellina on V PAY cards, we are already preparing for a future where cards and cash may be displaced by payments using mobiles. Our vision is to put payment tools in the pockets of every Italian consumer – whether on the cards they use today or the mobiles they already carry with them tomorrow. This collaboration is an important step towards making the vision a reality”. www.visaitalia.com