ING and MasterCard launch mobile PayPass trial in Romania

Five hundred ING customers in Bucharest are to be the first in the world to have a prepaid Maestro PayPass account loaded onto their NFC phone.

WORLD FIRST: 500 ING clients will try out the Mobile Maestro PayPass
WORLD FIRST: 500 ING clients will try out the Mobile Maestro PayPass

ING and MasterCard have announced they are running an NFC trial involving five hundred ING clients in Bucharest. It will be the first time a mobile version of MasterCard’s Maestro PayPass, a contactless prepaid payment product designed for small purchases, has been tested in the field.

Participants will receive a new Nokia 6212 NFC phone and will be able to both download account information and top up their Maestro PayPass balance over-the-air. To make a payment, clients will simply tap the phone on specially-equipped terminals at the point of sale for a quick, safe payment without the need for signatures or receipts.

The new trial comes just a month after MasterCard launched its Mobile MasterCard PayPass solution, designed to make it easier for member banks to offer NFC-based payment services to their cardholders. The system being used in the Bucharest trial was developed by ING and MasterCard in partnership with Collis, Venyon and Toro. The first phase of the trial will last for six months and some thirty merchant locations will participate.

According to a report by ePaymentsnews Network:

The participant merchants are located in Bucharest and include press distribution company Inmedio, Eurest, ProCinema, Hollywood Multiplex, as well as SensiBlu and Remedio drugstores. Trial participants are to be able to pay for low value purchases of up to RON 80 (EUR 20.66) by tapping their phones against contactless terminals installed in 30 to 40 locations. On top of the mobile payments service, participants as well as merchants will have access to marketing services provided through smart posters that rely on NFC.

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