UniCredit Chooses Gemalto’s Optelio Stickers
- UniCredit Slovakia has started its first commercial mobile payment deployment and opts for Gemalto’s Optelio contactless stickers, equipped with MasterCard PayPass technology. This is the very first initiative in this field in Slovakia.
- Optelio stickers have been certified by MasterCard. They adapt to all kinds of mobile phones. UniCredit also benefits from Gemalto’s customisation and delivery services.
- With this solution, UniCredit’s customers will be able to make contactless payments for amounts below 20 euros without having to enter their PIN (transactions for higher amounts will still require a PIN code). Some 3,000 acceptance points are already available.
- The setting-up of standards designed to provide a framework to NFC is still being discussed. Considering the high cost of mobile park renewal (so that the required components can be inserted to make the devices compatible) for manufacturers and for mobile phone carriers, contactless stickers seem to be attractive.
- Yet, these solutions are still at a risk of growing worn-out (transportation, frequent handling of the device, chocks, etc.) faster that other more expensive and durable alternative solutions (removable devices, built-in contactless features or embedded in SIM card, etc.).