Raiffeisen's CardMobile contactless payment product proving popular with consumers and retailers in Austria

VIENNA, Sept. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) together with Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberosterreich has successfully launched the contactless payment product, CardMobile, in Linz, Austria. This is the first mobile application in Austria that enables convenient and secure contactless payment without a bank or credit card at attractive payment handling costs for low value items.

Since July, employees of Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberosterreich in Linz have been able to make contactless payments with their mobile phones at selected shops. Initial experiences and the feedback from both the shoppers and the retailers are very positive.

"Retailers are especially pleased that with CardMobile they can settle even very small amounts affordably," says Gerald Kubu, Head of Card Services at RBI.  "The consumers, on the other hand, enjoy the speed and convenience of contactless payments, while they can monitor their purchases through the CardMobile payment app on their phone. People are using CardMobile on average three times a week for purchases with an average value of € 4.20. The valuable experiences we are gaining during the launch phase of CardMobile and the technologies used will be incorporated in plans for further projects and rollouts on mobile phone and other forms of payment such as cards."

RBI is collaborating with Visa Europe and Cardis International as strategic partners for CardMobile. While Visa Europe provides its expertise as a leading company for mobile contactless payment solutions through V PAY, Cardis contributes its unique solutions for low value payments. Pedro Deserrano, Senior Vice President of V PAY at Visa Europe, said of the successful implementation:  "CardMobile demonstrates the relevance of V PAY as a debit solution that meets the specific needs of the Austrian market and is the first realisation in Austria, in a mobile phone, of Visa Europe's vision of the future of payments."

For Nebo Djurdjevic, CEO of Cardis, CardMobile shows the benefits of the Cardis LVP plug-in that makes low value payments efficient and attractive for all participants in the payments value chain. "This brings an opportunity for other market participants in Austria to drive electronic processing of every-day small cash purchases as the Cardis LVP plug-in can be broadly used on many payment forms, including cards."

Further information is available at: www.r-card-service.at/cardmobile

Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) regards both Austria, where it is a leading corporate and investment bank, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market. In CEE, RBI operates an extensive network of subsidiary banks, leasing companies and a range of other specialised financial service providers in 17 markets.

RBI is the only Austrian bank with a presence in both the world's financial centres and in Asia, the group's further geographical area of focus.

In total, around 61.000 employees service about 14.2 million customers through more than 3,100 business outlets, the great majority of which are located in CEE.

RBI is a fully-consolidated subsidiary of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG (RZB). RZB indirectly owns around 78.5 per cent of the common stock, the remainder is in free float. RBI's shares are listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. RZB is the central institution of the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group, the country's largest banking group, and serves as the head office of the entire RZB Group, including RBI.

For further information please contact:
Ingrid Krenn-Ditz (+43-1-71 707-6055, [email protected]) or
Michael Palzer (+43-1-71 707-2828, [email protected]).
http://www.rbinternational.com, http://www.rzb.at

About Visa Europe
In Europe, there are 445 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards. In the 12 months ending September 2011 those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of €1.7 trillion. 14% of consumer spending at point of sale in Europe is with a Visa card, and almost 80% of that is on Visa debit cards.  

Visa Europe is owned and operated by more than 3,700 European member banks and was incorporated in July 2004. Visa Europe is independent of global Visa Inc., with an exclusive, irrevocable and perpetual licence in Europe, while both companies operate to ensure global interoperability. As a dedicated European payment system Visa Europe is able to respond quickly to the specific market needs of European banks and their customers - cardholders and retailers - and to meet the European Commission's objective to create a true internal market for payments. 

Visa enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around the world. In addition, Visa/PLUS is one of the world's largest global ATM networks, offering cash access in local currency in over 200 countries.

For more information, visit http://www.visaeurope.com/

About V PAY
V PAY is the Chip- and PIN based debit card developed by Visa Europe. Currently, banks in six countries are issuing V PAY cards. With more than 19 million cards issued and a further 51 million cards confirmed, V PAY accounts for a third of all new cards issued by Visa Europe member banks in 2011. V PAY cards are accepted by 8.5 million merchants and at around 400,000 ATMs throughout Europe.

About Cardis International
Cardis Enterprises International BV provides unique solutions for processing of low value payments with game changing cost efficiency. It aligns the interests of banks, payments schemes and retailers in driving the global move to cashless payments with significant economic benefits to their businesses.

Cardis' patented aggregation technology is available as a software plug-in that integrates with existing payments products and infrastructures to significantly reduce processing costs. It supports all chip-enabled form factors including contact cards, contactless cards and mobile phones, and all payment channels including physical point of sale, online and mobile commerce.

For further information please contact:

United States:
Anne Donohoe
[email protected]
212.896.1261

Europe:
Denise Gee
[email protected]
+44 (0) 779 376 8109

SOURCE Cardis International