OREANDA-NEWS. August 14, 2014. Moldova has become the 11th country to introduce the technology alongside with Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Visa Business Development Manager for Moldova and Belarus Igor Kovalev said when presenting Visa payWave.

The technology paves the way to the establishment of a modern eco system of contactless payments in Moldova, he emphasized. According to First Vice-President of Unibank Genadie Cernei, the Bank again has proved its innovative approach and has become the first bank in Moldova to introduce some unique Visa payment technologies. Igor Kovalev added contactless payments save time and shorten queues. McDonald's in Moldova has become the first company to use the technology. McDonald Director General Genadie Sanduta said the technology ensures better and faster services, which is consistent with the policy of the company.

During the presentation, visitors were shown three ways of making Visa payWave payments. The first is traditional: to make a payment a buyer inserts the payment card in the terminal. The second ones offers to use contactless Visa payWave cards. A buyer should present the card to a reader at a distance of up to 4 cm. The third way has never been used in Moldova and Belarus – a buyer may use a mobile phone that supports contactless payments. IN this case he or she should install software to create a digital copy of the payment card. The software is supported by Android devices for the present.

As InfoMarket reported earlier, Unibank was the first Moldova’s bank to introduce contactless payment card MasterCard PayPass. MasterCard Worldwide manager for Moldova Cosmin Vladimirescu emphasized Moldova had become the 51st country to put in circulation PayPass cards. Starting December 6 2013, Unibank started installing 200 POS terminals accepting contact and contactless payments. Contactless cards were invented in 2002 and put into circulation in Canada, the USA, Japan and Philippines in 2003. It takes a buyer 1 to 2 seconds to make a contactless payment. Holders of a Unibank card are not asked to enter the PIN code if the purchase amount does not exceed MDL 200.