OP brings easy contactless payment to the Pivo mobile wallet

OP's customers will be able to pay for their purchases by mobile phone during the spring. In practice, the payment is done by showing Pivo at the point of sale and moving the phone close to the payment terminal. The purchases are debited to the customer's OP debit card and the customer approves the transaction by entering the access code or other authentication code on the phone.

Pivo mobile wallet is OP's popular application where customers can monitor their spending. Pivo calculates the average spending and shows where the money has gone. In Pivo customers can also view their status in various loyalty programmes or use benefits offers by shops and restaurants. Pivo has been downloaded more than 500,000 times already.

- OP's payment cards enable secure payments on your mobile phone. You only need an Android phone with the NFC feature and an OP-Visa Debit or Visa Electron card. Customers can use their payment cards and accounts via the Pivo mobile wallet installed on the phone without unnecessary money transfers, says Pivo's Managing Director Hanna Äijälä from OP's New Businesses.

Contactless payment in Pivo is based on the NFC HCE technology. The payment solution and its security are founded on a technology specified by Visa where you do not need to change your SIM card in order to turn your phone into a payment instrument. 

- We are very pleased to team up with OP and contribute to bringing mobile payment available to consumers on a large scale, says Vesa Tukonen, Country Manager at Visa Europe.

- By using the NFC technology merchants can offer the mobile payment option to their customers without extra investments in parallel payment methods. It suffices that the merchant has a payment terminal that can receive contactless payments, says Hanna Äijälä.

- OP wants to be on the forefront of payments in brick-and-mortar shops, on the Internet and mobile devices. We aim to produce the best and smoothest methods of payment for Finns in all situations, making daily routines easier, says Hanna Äijälä.

OP launched contactless payment cards in 2012 and now payment is also possible by mobile phone. The contactless payment feature is already available in several store chains and the number of merchants is increasing.

Contactless payment is especially well suited for small purchases when the customer is in a hurry and keying in the PIN seems troublesome. The payment transaction is always protected by the access code or other authentication code of the phone. The customer can also choose to use Pivo's access code as additional protection. 

Check how contactless payment takes place in practice http://youtu.be/-p9k9NF2tbo

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Read more about the Pivo mobile wallet at: www.pivolompakko.fi

More information:
Hanna Äijälä, OP Financial Group, tel. [phone]
Kristian Luoma, OP Financial Group, tel. [phone]
Vesa Tukonen, Visa Europe, tel. [phone]

OP Financial Group is Finland's leading financial services group providing a unique range of banking, wealth management and insurance services. OP's mission is to promote the sustainable prosperity, security and wellbeing of its customer-owners, customers and operating regions. Its objective is to offer the best and most versatile package of loyal customer benefits on the market. OP Financial Group consists of about 180 member cooperative banks, its central institution OP Cooperative, and the latter's subsidiaries and affiliates. The Group has a staff of 12,000. OP Financial Group has 4.3 million customers. www.op.fi

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Source: Pohjola Pankki Oyj via Globenewswire

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