"Malaysia was the first country in the world to use Visa Wave contact-less card technology and it is now the first to test our Mobile Visa Wave Payment system," said Visa International country manager Jeffrey Perera.
Malaysians with a Maybank Visa card and Maxis Communications cellular subscription have been provided with a special phone by cellphone major Nokia which can be used at more than 2,500 stores in the country.
To make a payment, the user needs to hold the phone near a Visa Wave terminal (the effective range is up to 4 cm) and if authenticated, the amount will be billed to the user's Visa card account.
If a user loses his phone, he must immediately inform the bank. Also, purchases using the service are capped at RM110 per transaction, for now. For added security, the information on the phone's Visa smartchip cannot be accessed via the device's interface menu or SIM card.
"Mobile Visa Wave Payment shows the innovative use of the latest technologies to increase convenience and provide secure transactions for cardholders on the move," Paul Jung, Visa Asia Pacific's regional head for emerging products and technology said.
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