The wide-scale issuing and acquiring of Visa payWave cards will go live in 2013. Approximately 50,000 Visa payWave contactless cards are to be issued and over 500 terminals accepting Visa payWave cards are to be installed at the leading retail chains in Saint Petersburg by the end of 2013.

Pavel Filimonenok, Deputy Chairman of the Board at Bank Saint Petersburg said of the project: "Visa payWave cards are an up-to-date and extremely convenient way of making contactless payments. The successful partnership with the Visa payment scheme clearly demonstrates that Bank Saint Petersburg is one of the leaders in the Russian banking industry in terms of the implementation of new technologies."

Visa payWave cards are not only convenient, but provide a high level of security, as the cardholder doesn't have to pass the card to a cashier in a retail establishment; a payWave-enabled Visa card user can make payments themselves by simply tapping it on the terminal. In addition, if the total amount of the purchase made with Visa payWave is less than 1,000 RUR, there is no need for the cardholder to enter a PIN or sign a receipt.

Contactless payments facilitate a faster service for customers, decrease queues and reduce costs on cash operations for merchants. According to research, Visa payWave cards shorten the purchase procedure by 4.5 seconds on average compared to a payment made with cash. The payment procedure is also three seconds faster than by using a magnetic stripe card.

The Visa payWave technology, based on the international EMV standards for chip cards, provides the functional compatibility of the cards with payment terminals all over the world. It allows payWave cards to be used in any country where the Visa payWave technology is adopted, as well as at millions of retailers accepting standard Visa cards. If purchases are paid for with the Visa payWave card outside of Russia, the limit of a contactless payment without a signature and a PIN should be clarified with a store employee.

Compass Plus software products have been used for more than 10 years at Bank Saint Petersburg's processing centre. The Visa payWave card issuing and acquiring project has been implemented with the use of TranzWare and with the assistance of Compass Plus specialists whose highly professional skills contributed to the fast and efficient implementation of the project.