Belfius incorporates Worldline technology for contactless payments

They do not need to take their Bancontact, Maestro, Mastercard or Visa card out of their wallet anymore. Worldline, through its subsidiary equensWorldline specialised in financial processing, has developed the necessary technology to make this possible. It is the first solution available on the Belgian market that makes contactless payments possible with Bancontact.

Merchants have no additional costs for accepting contactless payments initiated by Android compatible telephones. More than half of the country’s points-of-sale are already equipped with a contactless payment terminal. Worldline is currently working on a large scale operation to ensure that all shopkeepers can accept this type of payment by 2018.

When a consumer makes a contactless payment, a set of information is exchanged between the mobile telephone and the payment terminal, the means deployed by Worldline using host card emulation (HCE) technology. The card number is not stored on the mobile telephone, but is replaced by an encrypted unique number.

A contactless payment can be made by holding an Android phone close to a payment terminal equipped with contactless technology. There is no need for a WiFi or mobile (4G/3G/2G) connection at the moment when the payment is made. The Belfius application downloads unique tokens from a server to make a limited number of payments without internet connection.

For amounts over USD 20, the customer must enter his PIN code on his smartphone to validate the transaction. Users of the Belfius application can use the same PIN code as the card or choose another one.

Merchants with a latest generation Worldline terminal can now accept all contactless payments by card and by mobile telephone. More than half of Belgian shopkeepers already have an appropriate terminal.

Worldline is specialised in payments and transactional services industry, enabling its customers to offer solutions to the end consumer. For more information about this company, please check a detailed profile in our online payments database.