Eftpos to begin mobile payment trials with selected retailers in the next few months, it confirmed today.
Debit card payment system has signed a five-year agreement with mobile transactions pioneer, C-SAM, to provide an eftpos mobile wallet and Near Field Communications (NFC) widget for ‘touch and tap’ payments with your smartphone.
Google Wallet already has launched a similar service, where credit/debit cards are stored on Google servers, which you can use on your phone or computer to pay for goods online and in-store.
The new mobile wallet technology could enable eftpos to provide other services like offers, loyalty and transfer of receipts, all via the epayment system, CEO, Bruce Mansfield said.
No word on who the “selected retailers” eftpos are testing with. SmartHouse contacted the company and are awaiting confirmation.
“This agreement will enable eftpos to move into proof of concept trials very quickly, to test various solutions for the Australian market.”
eftpos mobile wallet and NFC widget will be developed as white label products that could “potentially be used by a number of Australian retailers or financial institutions,” he said.
“We want to make sure that any new technology that we offer on mobile devices is going to provide financial institutions, retailers and consumers with secure, accessible and affordable payment solutions.“
C-SAM has extensive experience in NFC and mobile payments and has systems in US, Japan, Singapore.
C-SAM CEO Felix Marx said “our partnership with eftpos enables eftpos to deploy mobile wallet capabilities quickly and easily under various brands.”
eftpos is Australia’s most used payment card network at the point of sale, and recorded more than 2.2 billion transactions worth $134 billion at over half a million merchants last year.
And considering every man and his dog now has a smartphone, we may all be using our eftpos digital wallets soon and leaving the cash at home altogether.
