Garanti Bank customers can already make contactless card payments quickly and easily using their Visa contactless card. The partnership with Turkcell means that Garanti Bank customers with any Garanti issued Visa credit card can now make contactless payments using their NFC-enabled smartphones by registering their card in the Turkcell Wallet.

Sandra Alzetta, Executive Director, Visa Europe said: "Forging successful partnerships with our member banks and mobile network operators is crucial to driving the roll out and adoption of mobile payments. Our relationship with Garanti Bank and Turkcell is a great example of how these partnerships can offer new and exciting services to Visa cardholders."

Onur Genç, Payment Systems General Manager, Garanti said: "Garanti Bank mobilises the power of technology in developing innovative products and services, including contactless cards. For the first time, we are now offering contactless payments on mobile phones to several user groups, including Visa cardholders, in cooperation with Turkcell. In accordance with our mission to lead the sector, we are continuing to make the transaction network easier and faster."

Semih Incedayi, Technology General Manager, Turkcell said: "We have introduced many firsts to the field of mobile finance with our Turkcell Wallet application since it was launched two years ago. We plan to continue making our customers' lives easier by adding new and innovative features to our ever-expanding Turkcell Wallet."

Consumers with a Garanti issued Visa credit and Turkcell Wallet will be able to make mobile contactless payments at any of the 78,000 contactless-enabled terminals* across Turkey or the 1.2 million contactless-enabled terminals across Europe*. Over eight million contactless payments* have been made in Turkey in the past 12 months demonstrating a strong appetite for new payment methods.

This is the first time that Visa cardholders will be able to register their Garanti payment cards in the Turkcell Wallet. To support this, Turkcell has pre-installed Visa's Mobile Payment Application (VMPA) onto a new generation of NFC compatible SIMs. 50,000 of these SIMs are already in the smartphones of customers and Turkcell plans to distribute 250,000 by the end of 2014.

Turkey has been at the forefront of payment innovation to date with Visa launching Europe's first:
• micro SD contactless mobile payments solution with Akbank,
• iPhone mobile payments solution iCarte with Yapi Kredi and Turkcell, and
• contactless prepaid cards with Halkbank.