This marks the first step to realising the partnership between the two Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsors to bring mobile contactless payments to London as part of their support of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The application is based on Visa’s payWave technology that enables contactless payments at the Point of Sale. To make payments, customers simply hold the phone in front of a contactless reader at the point of purchase. Purchases above 15 pounds require a passcode. The application also lets customers check their transaction history and view their up to date account balance. Backed by the multi-layered security and reliability of Visa’s processing platform, mobile contactless payments are protected by the same standard terms and conditions that apply to Visa cards.
“London 2012 is a unique opportunity to show the future of payments coming to life and leave a lasting legacy post-2012. The new mobile payment application is central to this showcase,” said Sandra Alzetta, head of innovation at Visa Europe. “We are also working with a number of partners to put live mobile payment technology into consumer hands. We’ve recently announced the certification of a number of major manufacturer handsets for NFC payments, which brings mainstream commercial mobile payments a step closer to reality.”
“Samsung is extremely thrilled to work with Visa to launch mobile payment services for the London 2012 Olympic Games. We believe that this showcase will motivate people to experience and adopt easy and safe payment through mobile devices. As a long-time Olympic partner and a mobile technology leader, Samsung is fully committed to providing our customers with reliable and convenient mobile experiences during the Olympic Games through our partnership with Visa,” said DJ Lee, executive vice president and head of sales and marketing team of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business.