Visa and Qiwi Team Up for Russian Mobile Payments Roll Out

Visa has enabled its payWave application for Russia’s frequently used Qiwi e-wallet, thus making mobile contactless payments available for millions of Russian consumers.

Backed by cloud-based HCE technology, The Visa/Qiwi wallet is able to bring mobile payments to NFC-enabled devices operating on Android model 4.4 or higher to retailers in Russia, and worldwide.

The Visa Qiwi Wallet can be accessed in any of the 100,000 plus QIWI kiosks throughout Russia—by a mobile phone account, or by linking an individual bankcard. Visa payWave comes pre-installed in the new version of the e-wallet.

Qiwi currently boasts a 17.3 million-user count for its mobile e-wallet. However, within the past year the transaction count has increased four times.

“In Сemea, Russia ranks first in terms of the penetration of contactless payments made with Visa payWave cards. These facts convincingly prove that this technology is popular among cardholders, primarily due to its convenience and security. All you need to do is to hold your Visa payWave card or, now, your smartphone with the Qiwi Visa Wallet app installed, up to the terminal,” commented Andrew Torre, the Country Manager for Visa Russia.

Russian customers are likely to reap the benefits of this app, having easier access to an efficient e-wallet thanks to work from Visa and Qiwi.