Visa Europe today announced that six of Germany's leading banks are launching new contactless services enabled by Visa payWave in the very near future.
BW Bank, comdirect, DKB, Landesbank Berlin, TARGOBANK and Volkswagen Bank have all confirmed their plans to roll out Visa Europe's industry leading contactless service by the middle of 2012. This marks the largest milestone yet in Germany's journey towards the acceptance of new payment technologies.
"The retail industry in Germany has almost completed its switch to EMV technology. The implementation of contactless and NFC represent the next step in our journey towards the future of payments," says Ottmar Bloching, General Manager Germany for Visa Europe. "Visa Europe's work in other European markets has shown that contactless technology reduces queuing time and helps customers pay more quickly, conveniently and above all, securely."
Contactless payments are based on EMV technology, where a card terminal at the point of sale reads the secure EMV chip on a credit or debit card with a near field communication (NFC) reader. During this process, the cardholder does not have to hand over his or her payWave card, instead holding it in front of the reader in a distance of a maximum of 4 centimeters. Within a fraction of a second, the terminal processes the transaction and the payment is made.
For amounts of less than 25 Euros, the transaction is processed without PIN or signature. For amounts of more than 25 Euros, the cardholder confirms the transaction as usual with either a signature or the use of a PIN number.