The National Bank of Kuwait and Visa Inc. have partnered with Zain a telecommunications operator across the Middle East and Africa to launch a Near Field Communication mobile payment trial in the GCC, using NFC enabled Nokia 6212 devices.
The six-month pilot will take place from October 2009 to April 2010. The trial will enable 500 selected NBK cardholders to download their Zain Visa credit card account details directly to their Nokia 6212 classic handset over the Zain network. Once the account has been personalized on the phone, customers can then begin to make purchases at any one of the 100 merchant partner outlets at Kuwait’s largest mall, The Avenues by simply passing a Nokia mobile phone over the Visa payWave reader at the point of sale.
There are three other systems being tested within this trial. The concept of smart posters will be introduced to consumers, enabling them to collect retail offers that can be redeemed for purchases at partner outlets simply by tapping their mobile phone against the poster.
Also, customers and trial participants will be able to download a free Visa prepaid card by tapping the phone on a smart poster. Participants with a credit card and a prepaid card, will also have the option to choose to pay from either cards from their phone at the point of sale. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/nfcnews-4.gif)
