The small scale trial is an extension of the Tellcard initiative in the North Italian province of Sondrio, which uses contactless technology to enable payments of up to EUR15 on Credito Valtellinese V Pay cards.

Fifty Credito Valtellinese employees will be given a Nokia mobile phone equipped with the Tellcard Mobile V Pay contactless application which can be used to make purchases at 180 locations in the northern cities of Sondrio, Chiavenna, Morbegno, Tirano and Bormio. Mobile payments can be made using the same contactless acceptance infrastructure already deployed for the Tellcard V Pay project.

Davide Steffanini, general manager Visa Europe in Italy, comments: "Our vision is to put payment tools in the pockets of every Italian consumer - whether on the cards they use today or the mobiles they already carry with them tomorrow. This collaboration is an important step towards making the vision a reality".

Elsewhere in Europe Visa also has contactless card programmes in the UK, Turkey, and Poland and contactless card pilots in France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. There are Visa mobile contactless pilots in France, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.