With the Visa payWave card, holders can pay for low value every day items in less than a second. At the checkout, the consumer just waves his card in front of a "contactless" reader, a light signals that authentification has taken place and the transaction has been approved. The process is simple, fast, and as secure as a traditional bank card, not to mention the fact that the card never leaves the holder's hand.

Banque Populaire's Flash card will be used to pay for purchases of less than 20 euro, which are usually paid in cash. For amounts exceeding 20 euro, the client will use the same card, but in the traditional way, by entering his PIN.

Contactless payment hinges on the inclusion of a radio antenna in the body of the card, which makes it possible to establish very short distance - a few centimetres - wireless communication with the reader, which is connected to a terminal.

So as to carry out this large technical pilot experimentation, the Banque Populaire Group leaned on Natixis Paiements' expertise and highly specialised teams.

Roland Entz, Managing Director of Visa Europe in France explained: "We are pleased to be carrying out this new pilot project with the Banque Populaire Group and Natixis Paiements, which will be contributing to the development and enhancement of contactless solutions. The project also underscores Visa's commitment to facilitate the roll out of contactless payment in France."

The worldwide launch of Visa payWave programmes will speed up checkout times and facilitate transactions at retailers that accept Visa payWave cards. Similar programmes are being implemented in the UK, Spain, Turkey, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Guatemala.

In France, Visa Europe is also participating in the "Payez Mobile" contactless payment by mobile phone project in Strasbourg and Caen.