Visa rolls out retail m-payments in Malaysia
Visa has announced the launch of the a commercial mobile payment service for retail transactions using near field communications (NFC) technology, allowing Malaysian consumers to use an off-the-shelf NFC-enabled mobile handset to make contactless payments instead of using plastic payment cards.
Maxis, a nationwide wireless carrier with over 11 million subscribers, teamed up with Visa, Nokia, and Maybank to provide Visa's payWave contactless technology on mobile phone handsets.
The service allows Maybank Visa account holders to simply wave their NFC-enabled Nokia 6212 handset in front of a contactless reader at the point-of-sale to complete a secure transaction in a matter of a few seconds, after downloading their Visa payWave credit account details to their Nokia handset via the Maxis network.
Once the account has been downloaded onto the handset, the account holder can then begin to make purchases at any of the 1,800 merchant outlets that currently accept Visa payWave throughout Malaysia.
The contactless chip embedded in the device can also drive a number of other functions, including a contactless transit application that will enable commuters to pay their charges while using metropolitan transit systems, bus terminals, highway toll gates, as well as car park facilities, covering more than 3,000 contactless touch-points nationwide. Maxis has branded these mobile payment services under the name Maxis FastTap.
Dr Nikolai Dobberstein, Maxis' senior vice president of strategy, said: "Our collaboration with Visa is part of our wider NFC strategy which includes multiple applications including mass transit, road tolling, parking, mobile marketing through smart posters and of course retail payment through Visa payWave."
Over the past two years, Visa has also worked with other mobile network operators, handset manufacturers, financial institutions, merchants and technology providers to develop mobile payments and related services. For example, Visa is extending mobile payments to Singapore in partnership with Citibank and MobileOne (M1), and more than 750 merchant locations throughout Singapore will participating in the three-month pilot which begins in May 2009. Up to 300 selected Citi M1 Visa Platinum account holders will be invited to join, also using Nokia 6212 handsets.
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