Japanese card issuer JCB says it will conduct trials of its mobile contactless payments technology in Amsterdam this autumn.
JCB says the pilot will mark the first implementation of a contactless credit card payment scheme in Europe.
Selected JCB customers will be supplied with a Nokia mobile phone equipped with Philips' NFC (near field communication) chips and loaded with JCB's contactless payment application.
Customers will be able to use the phones to pay for small-value purchases at participating merchants. In the first stage of the pilot, JCB says it will be targeting approximately 100 cardmembers located in Amsterdam and merchants in and around the city's World Trade Centre.
Hajime Matsuura, branch mmanager at JCB International's Amsterdam Branch, says the mobile payments service is the most useful and convenient method for cardmembers to pay small charges ranging from parking to supermarket purchases.
"We are confident that it will enable us to expand our business scope to the smaller amount transactions, as well as to extend a higher level of services to our cardmembers," says Matsuura.
JCB says the pilot is primarily designed to evaluate technological aspects and operational feasibility including customer ease-of-use.
Gemplus will develop the mobile payment application and the associated personalisation system, while Dutch telecoms operator KPN will add the application to the Nokia NFC mobile phones. CCV Holland and Vivotech are also involved in the project and will deploy the contactless EMV readers, while PaySquare will provide merchant acquiring services.