February 26th 2013 - Visa and Samsung today announced a global alliance that combines Visa’s expertise in payments with Samsung’s leadership in mobile device technology – an alliance that has the potential to significantly accelerate the availability of mobile payments globally.

According to the agreement, financial institutions that are planning to launch mobile payment programs will be able to use the Visa Mobile Provisioning Service to securely download payment account information to NFC-enabled Samsung devices. In addition, Samsung has agreed to load the Visa payWave applet onto its mobile devices featuring NFC technology. Visa payWave is Visa’s mobile payment applet that enables consumers to make “wave and pay” contactless payments using mobile devices.

“Samsung devices enabled with Visa payment functionality will no doubt be a powerful product offering – especially in markets where paying with a mobile device is becoming commonplace,” said Jim McCarthy, global head of product, Visa Inc. “However, the key to making mobile payments broadly available all over the world is to offer financial institutions a secure way to provision millions of smartphones with payment account information – and that is exactly what Visa and Samsung are ready to deliver.”

“Samsung has been a pioneer in NFC devices and is again leading the way in enabling NFC-based mobile payments. The partnership with Visa represents a step towards a global mobile payment platform.” said Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, President and Head of Media Solution Center, Samsung Electronics. “We believe that we have a strong value proposition for financial institutions that will ultimately allow consumer choice in NFC payments.”

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is the global communication standard that enables mobile devices to securely communicate with a payment terminal. ABI Research forecasts that a total of 1.95 billion NFC-enabled devices will ship in 2017. The Visa Samsung global alliance is a first of its kind between a leading NFC handset manufacturer and payment network that is paving the way for the implementation of large scale mobile payment programs. The initial areas of engagement that the two companies have agreed to include:

· Global Strategic Alliance
Visa and Samsung have agreed to work together to enable the next generation of Samsung mobile devices with Visa payment technology, and to partner with financial institutions to accelerate the availability of mobile payment solutions globally.

· Samsung to Connect to Visa’s Mobile Provisioning Service
In order to enable financial institutions to launch large scale mobile (NFC) payment programs, Samsung will offer banks the ability to load payment account information over-the-air to a secure chip embedded in Samsung devices, using Visa’s Mobile Provisioning Service which is linked to Samsung KMS (Key Management System) – a service that creates secure data storage domains for issuers.

· Samsung Awarded Global Visa payWave License
The Visa payWave mobile applet will be preloaded onto selected next-generation Samsung mobile devices featuring NFC technology and an embedded secure element. Off the shelf, these devices are ready to be personalized with Visa payment account information – a simple step that consumers will be able to initiate using a mobile payment application provided by their financial institution.

At Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, February 25-28, Visa will demonstrate Visa payWave for mobile and its Mobile Provisioning Service that can be used by financial institutions to securely load payment account information to NFC-enabled Samsung mobile devices. For more information, visit Visa at Mobile World Congress, Hall 6, Stand 6E40.

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker