Visa powers new payment technologies

• Visa partners with Maxis, Maybank, and Nokia to launch mobile payment service
• Service complements Touch 'n Go
• Touch 'n Go is also a partner on the related Maxis FastTap initiative
  

Malaysia - Visa has move beyond the pilot phase of its first commercial mobile payments service for point-of-sale transactions with Maxis, Maybank, and Nokia all part of the company's first commercial program of this nature to launch in Malaysia.

Using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, consumers can purchase an NFC-enabled mobile device and use it to make Visa payWave-enabled transactions at the point-of-sale instead of using their payment card.

Maxis, Maybank, and Nokia have teamed with Visa to offer Visa payWave on mobile devices.

The service launched yesterday and allows Maybank Visa account holders to use a specific NFC-Nokia handset in front of a reader to complete a Visa transaction. Maybank Visa account holders can also download their Visa payWave credit account details directly to the Nokia handset over the Maxis wireless network.

There are currently 1800 merchant outlets which accept Visa payWave in Malaysia, and the service complements local electronic payment system company Touch ‘n Go which recently launched a marketing drive to stimulate the number of merchant outlets taking up its offering.

Touch ‘n Go hopes to grow thenumber of merchants using its Electronic Payment System (EPS) to 1500 by the end of this year - at the start of 2009 the company equipped 157 merchant outlets in Klang Valley and along the North-South Highway with its payment facility.

While Visa says the contactless chip embedded in its device will also power a number of additional functions, including a contactless transit application which enables Malaysian commuters to pay for charges while using metropolitan transit systems, bus terminals, highway toll gates and car park facilities at more than 3,000 contactless payment touch points throughout Malaysia.

These mobile payment services have been branded under the name Maxis FastTap of which Touch 'n Go is a partner of.