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The pilot project will last six months and it will include 1,500 users and 500 merchants in Sitges with clients from “la Caixa” and Telefonica equipped with the latest technology in payment methods.

NFC “Proximity technology” allows making purchases by simply bringing close the mobile phone to the POS’s terminal, turning the telephone’s SIM card into a virtual mobile wallet that stores the payment card.

Visa will provide the mobile payment application and Samsung will supply the state of the art mobile handsets. The city of Sitges also participates in this project.

Barcelona, 11 February 2010

“la Caixa” and Telefónica are launching a pioneering experience in Spain to make purchases using mobile phones equipped with NFC technology. Visa and the city of Sitges are also collaborating in this project in which Telefónica’s and “la Caixa’s” clients will be able to make purchases by bringing their mobile phones close to the POS’s terminal. The mobile phone’s SIM card turns into a virtual mobile wallet (Movistar wallet) that can store multiple cards, and the users have their own personalized financial card with advanced security features.

This innovative pilot project, called “Mobile Shopping. Sitges 2010″, is the first one to be carried out at a European level in a real scenario with such a high number of participants. In total, 1,500 people and 500 merchants in Sitges will be participating in this initiative for six months.

To make a purchase, the user will only have to bring his mobile phone close to the POS after the salesperson inserts the total amount for the purchase. Some signs (indicators) will then show that the reading has been correct and the screen’s terminal will confirm that the transaction has been accepted. Optionally, the client can request a receipt for the transaction.

The objective of this pilot project is to encourage and develop mobile purchases in a real scenario like Sitges, a city with a briskly commercial activity that will help analyze and identify which is the best experience for the user and validate a standard service amongst all the intervening actors. The use of NFC technology will add convenience and speed to purchase, ease of use and the possibility of knowing immediately which transactions have been made, as well as providing the client with a fast service whenever they want to apply or renew their payment card. In other words, through Movistar wallet, which incorporates the financial card and details of operations, the client will be able to manage all his purchases.

Comitted to the innovation

With this initiative “la Caixa” and Telefónica, together with Visa’s collaboration, show their commitment for innovation and a strategy of quality of service that differentiates them from their competitors, and they lead banking innovation with the use of new technologies and the promotion of new initiatives in the information society.

To fulfill this experience, Telefónica has developed a virtual wallet which allows the client to choose which payment card he wants to use to make the purchases. The NFC platform has the capability of remotely managing the cards’ lifecycle (issuance, activation, usage and cancellation) using OTA (Over-The-Air) technology. This technology has been developed so it can be deployed homogeneously across all markets in which Telefónica operates.

“la Caixa”, chaired by Isidro Fainé and ran by Juan María Nin, is the first financial institution to launch the contactless payment system at a real large scale using the NFC system. In this pilot program, “la Caixa” will be the financial institution in charge of issuing a VISA card that will be placed into the participant’s SIM card and that will offer the same services the client already has with his current cards: payment and associated services such as CaixaProtect. “la Caixa” will also support the POS readers that merchants will use to accept payments by mobile phones.

“la Caixa” is an international leader in the research and development of new technologies for the financial industry. This institution chairs the international working group on payments with the NFC technology created by Mobey Forum, the organization that brings together operators, financial institutions and mobile manufactures. “la Caixa”’s commitment to innovation has turn this entity in the leading financial institution of mobile phone payment systems in the world. According to Nielsen Netratings, “la Caixa” is the leader in the Spanish market with a market share of over 52%, the highest rate any financial entity has in the world, with over 1.4 million users.

Visa looks forward to participating (in this pilot programme) with its mobile payment application of global acceptance as a demonstration of its leadership in innovation in payment systems. Visa backs the creation of new products and value added services, more efficient and secure than cash, to benefit consumers, merchants and financial institutions.

Samsung is the provider of the NFC mobile phone device that the participants will use in this pilot project. Samsung has established itself as the leading manufacturer of mobile phones worldwide and, at present, it is the only one to have a full compliant NFC mobile terminal on the market. This collaboration clearly reflects the vocation of the company to continue to invest in innovation as the main differentiating factor for strengthening the position of leadership in a highly competitive environment such as telecommunications.

Gemalto is the NFC service platform supplier and also the supplier of the SIM cards.

Sitges Town Hall has cooperated with Telefonica and “la Caixa” setting up all the necessary requirements to make this pilot project a success. Sitges has the ideal characteristics to conduct this experience with 30,000 inhabitants and an intense commercial activity. It is positioned as a pioneer city, innovative and both nationally and internationally recognized as a touristic city.