Poland’s Bank Millennium unveils Visa tokenisation
The number of its mobile service users has increased by 42% over the past year
Warsaw-based Bank Millennium has launched “Europe’s first issuer wallet” using Visa tokenisation – so its customers can use the mobile app to create a virtual equivalent of their card.
The bank says virtualising the card and using the service is free of charge, and cardholders can pay with their phone via HCE (host card emulation).
Bank Millennium is making a big deal out of mobile, and says the number of its mobile service users has increased by 42% over the past year. It also cites this year’s results of Visa’s annual “Digital Payments Study”, where 77% of Polish consumers say they are mobile money users. The study also reveals that 85% of millennials are mobile money users.
The parameters of the virtual card will be the same as in its plastic equivalent. It will not be necessary to define new PIN numbers or set up new limits, while cancellation of the plastic card will be equivalent to cancelling the virtual card. Thus there is “no need to issue a special card dedicated to phone payments”, although the bank says an option is provided to issue dedicated purely virtual debit cards.
Customers who create a virtual counterpart of their card or a new, completely virtual card in the Bank Millennium app will be able to pay with their phone “wherever contactless is accepted”. Transactions over PLN 50 ($13.7) must be PIN-confirmed.
Bank Millennium has 6,000 staff and has been operating for 27 years. As of 21 March 2017, Banco Comercial Português (BCP) holds 50.1% shares of Bank Millennium.
