Visa and ANZ mobile payment project hits snag

Despite a successful trial, Visa and ANZ wait for technology to evolve to fully replace credit cards with mobile phone payments in Australia.

The replacement of credit cards with mobile phone payments in Australia seems no closer despite an apparently successful four-week trial conducted by ANZ Bank and Visa.

In April, Visa indicated near field communication (NFC) could be available locally within a year, but on Wednesday Visa has backed away from nominating any time frame for mobile phone payments implementation.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, ANZ and Visa said more than 90 per cent of participants in a trial earlier this year liked making purchases using their mobile phone as they didn't need to carry a wallet, and all said they felt safe making contactless transactions with their handsets.

"Participants in the trial clearly found mobile payments using Visa payWave to be a convenient and easy replacement for cash, ideal for fast, simple transactions," Visa Australia country manager Vipin Kalra said.

Fifty staff from the Sydney and Melbourne offices of Visa and ANZ were given a special protective iPhone case with a secure MicroSD memory card that turned their phone into a contactless payment device using NFC technology.

NFC allows extremely short-range communication between a mobile phone and the Visa contactless reader without the two touching.

View the full story in The Australian.