MobileWallet: the test period has finished

Gábor Pukler, president of the Hungarian Mobile Wallet Association announced that the 1-year test period was completed and the MobileWallet service is expected to be launched in retail at the end of 2014. At the moment 350,000-400,000 consumers are willing to use the service. The MobileWallet technology is basically payment using a mobile phone with an NFC chip, which can also be used for collecting loyalty points. In the test period OTP MasterCard Mobil PayPass debit card, SuperShop NFC loyalty card, All You Can Move NFC Sportpass and the NFC version of tickets purchased at Jegy.hu were available via the MobileWallet service. During the 12-month test 41,000 payments and more than 4,000 loyalty point transactions were performed and users spent HUF 120 million through the MobileWallet application. The average transaction was HUF 2,900 and the MobileWallet was used 9 times a month on average. Mr Pukler told our magazine that the number of places where the service can be used is growing dynamically, there are already 18,000 locations where contactless card payment and MobileWallet can be used. Gábor Lemák, general secretary of the Hungarian Mobile Wallet Association told Trade magazin that the success of the new payment method depends on the attitude of retailers, for instance on how much work they put into educating cashiers. He added that Hungary’s MobileWallet service was developed in line with international standards and uses the same protocol as in other countries