Visa, Samsung and First Data team on dongle-less mPOS payments - and they plan to test it in Poland!

Samsung, Visa and Fiserv unit First Data have teamed up to make the mPOS dongle a thing of the past, replacing it with a software-based system that lets merchants accept contactless payments of any amount on their handsets without the need for any additional hardware.

We've heard it so many times already. Every time tough, discussion flows toward security. The challenge is how to secure the moment, when customers are asked to read the card via NFC and punch theirs pin on a mobile phone belonging to a merchant or other seller. Security issues around "fake" phones that only log card details + pin in order to hit mag stripe on ATMs in less developed countries - this has to be addressed.

However, when you are brave enough to make a flight test in Poland, where people are ...how to say it... very creative, if you will pass that test - you're good to go elsewhere.

And this is the scenario which is happening. SoftPOS is being showcased at the IFA tech fair in Berlin before a pilot begins in Poland later this year ahead of a wider EMEA and APAC rollout.

The SoftPOS system uses the NFC functionality in a merchant's smartphone or tablet to let them accept payments from contactless cards as well as NFC-enabled handsets and wearables.

Visa is bringing its contactless capability, while Fiserv offers settlement of transactions via a mobile app and Samsung provides security protocols in both hardware and software, as well as the mobile devices.

"SoftPOS, has been designed to meet the current and future needs of consumers and entrepreneurs and will change the way people make daily payments, facilitating the convenient, quick, and secure processing of contactless transactions,”

says John Gibbons, head, Emea, Fiserv.

Source: Finextra