For instance ING Bank conducted such a pilot project and says it is preparing to introduce this service in its standard offer.
BRD, the second largest bank by assets, conducted a similar project in partnership with Orange last year.
Such mobile phone payments use the NFC technology, a high-frequency wireless technology that allows the data exchange between two objects within a range of a few meters.
At market level there are around 3,000 terminals that accept the NFC technology with merchants, according to Visa, which expects their number to reach 10,000 by the end of the year as increasingly more banks are set to adopt the new technology.
BCR currently issues Visa-branded cards, BRD and ING issue MasterCard-branded cards. ING is preparing to also issue Visa-branded cards. Contactless cards allow low-value transactions to be conducted with merchants, without the need of physical contact or of introducing a PIN code.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)