Garanti and Turkish mobile network operator Avea recently moved from pilot phase to general commercial availability of their system to adapt existing mobile phones for NFC payments.

VeriFone Systems’ NFC contactless payment acceptance systems are a key interface between merchants and consumers’ mobile phones in Garanti Bank’s first-in-world rollout of a nationwide integrated NFC SIM mobile payment program.

Consumers can purchase and install NFC capable SIM cards that allow them to use their mobile phones for electronic payment at NFC contactless acceptance devices in merchant locations. VeriFone has supplied 10,000 NFC-capable devices to Garanti for merchant use.

“Garanti demonstrated that NFC is now commercially viable,” said Soner Casur, vice president and general manager of VeriFone South East Europe. “The merchant/consumer interface is crucial to success of NFC mobile payment adoption and VeriFone is thrilled to provide key payment acceptance solutions that make it easy to transition to this new era of mobile payments.”

VeriFone is one of the main suppliers of payment solutions to Garanti, with more than 150,000 systems implemented throughout Turkey. For NFC mobile payments, VeriFone’s PINpad 1000SE currently provide merchants and consumers with a field-ready solution for implementation of mobile payments.

VeriFone systems have been in use for Garanti’s existing Bonus Trink contactless payment system, which has provided bank customers with the ability to make payments using a credit card, key fob, watch or the Bonus Trink contactless sticker.

With the new add-on SIM card with antenna from Gemalto and Garanti pre-paid MasterCard PayPass that is loaded in the SIM manufacturing stage, consumers can immediately adapt existing and new mobiles for NFC mobile payments. This product is the first commercial add-on NFC SIM that supports open platform payment system around the world.

Source: Business Wire