Financial services group ING launches its first ING Mobile Payments trial in Romania in partnership with MasterCard. The NFC mobile payments trial takes place in Romania’s capital Bucharest and will last 6 months.
The program will focus on consumer and merchant experience and will include a maximum of 500 consumers equipped with Nokia 6212 NFC-enabled handsets embedded with Maestro PayPass technology.
This is the first stage of the ING Mobile Payments trial in Romania, according to ING Romania Executive Director Albert Roggemans. 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.
ING and MasterCard are cooperating with provider of testing of information technology systems Collis, trusted service manager Venyon, Toro and LogicaCMG in this mobile payments program. ING is also collaborating with mobile operators Orange Romania, Vodafone Romania and an undisclosed operator. ING announces it selected Romania due to the fact that its infrastructure meets requirements for contactless payments. Also, according to ING, mobile technology combined with a payments product is very interesting for young Romanians. The mobile penetration in Romania is over 100 percent and the mobile telephony market is dominated by only 2 operators.