Nokia Handsets Approved by Visa

Nokia and Visa EU have announced a cooperation in the field of mobile payments. The cooperation is centered on the new advanced wallet application in Nokia handsets and the Verified by Visa service. The new version of the wallet application, first introduced in the Nokia 6220 and Nokia 6600 phones, makes service access and mobile payment easy and convenient for mobile users. The application enables users to store a range of personal information, such as usernames and passwords for different mobile services, Visa payment card details, delivery addresses and personal notes, on their mobile phone and easily retrieve that data during a browsing session to fill in required data fields.

The needed data can be sent to the application over-the-air by service providers and card issuers or alternatively the consumers can manually enter data into the wallet All the data in the wallet is encrypted and the application can be accessed only with a wallet PIN code.

Visa sees the mobile channel as an integral part of its strategy and is extending the Verified by Visa service to include the mobile channel. With Verified by Visa, consumers can shop online with added confidence. Verified by Visa protects the cardholder with a unique password and personal assurance message, meaning that no one else can use the Visa card number at any of the Verified by Visa retailers. Cardholders can use the same password both in the Internet channel and in the mobile channel. The underlying technology behind the Verified by Visa service is the 3-D Secure protocol, a global payment authentication standard developed by Visa to make online shopping safe by authenticating cardholders and merchants.

Now Nokia and Visa are together driving convenient and secure mobile payments.

Visa sees the mobile phone and especially the new convenient wallet application to be a key component in the large-scale adoption of mobile commerce services. Nokia, in turn, supports the adoption of the Verified by Visa service into the mobile world as it gives both consumers and merchants more confidence while using mobile phones as key payment devices for both digital and physical goods. Modirum, a software company, has carried out extensive testing to verify the compatibility of the wallet application and the Verified by Visa service.

"By extending the 3-D Secure specification beyond the traditional fixed-line Internet, we can ensure that secure payments can be made also in the mobile domain. The success of these mobile payments will depend on having easy and convenient devices such as the one we are announcing today. We believe that this will help the mobile channel to grow in importance and want Visa to be the preferred choice of mobile commerce payment, just as it is in other channels," says Guido Mangiagalli, Head of New Channels Visa EU"

Posted to the site on 24th September 2003