“We will try to introduce the first payments by mobile phone this year, or next year at the latest. It is difficult to estimate, because in Romania even contactless payments are in their early stages,” said Cretu.
This service will eventually be available for all card-carrying clients, but at first only clients with an account attached to the card will be able to use it.
Cretu expects contactless payments to take off this year, as many banks, not only those in the banking system’s top five, have expressed an interest. At the moment, only BCR, BRD and Citi provide such services.
Visa has begun implementing the mobile payment system in Spain and Turkey, and is running pilot projects in other countries, though not in Romania for the time being.
At the end of 2011, there were 30 million contactless cards in circulation in Europe, with 50 million projected by the end of 2012, according to Visa Europe’s estimates. In October, the company launched the first mobile payment services – person-to-person payments and text alerts.
Visa Europe has also made strategic investments in mobile financial services company Monitise and data analytics firm Beyond Analysis to support its payments strategy.
The company will launch the digital wallet service in the second half of this year.
Visa predicts that, by 2020, more than half of its processed transactions will be carried out via mobile phone.