QIWI Integrates payWave into Visa QIWI Wallet (Aug. 19, 2015)
Building on a contactless payments boom in Russia, Visa and Russian payment services provider QIWI have integrated Visa’s payWave contactless technology into the Visa QIWI Wallet, providing millions of users with a new mobile payment option at contactless terminals.
“Over the past year, the number of transactions made with Visa payWave in Russia has increased four times, while their volumes have increased seven-fold,” said Andrew Torre, country manager for Visa Russia. “Moreover, in [Central Europe, Middle East and Africa region], Russia ranks first in terms of the penetration of contactless payments made with Visa payWave cards.”
QIWI says it has deployed more 17.3 million virtual wallets. The contactless Visa payWave solution is preinstalled in the new version of the e-wallet. Customers who already have installed the Visa QIWI Wallet application only need to download the latest update on smartphones operating on Android 4.4 or higher. The Visa QIWI Wallet account can be loaded at more than 100,000 QIWI kiosks throughout Russia by linking a bankcard or from a mobile phone account. The two companies also have worked together to develop an advanced security system using algorithms to verify transactions to protect users against fraud, according to an announcement.
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