Payleven to Offer NFC-Capable Mobile Card Reader in Europe

Payleven is launching a new chip and PIN card reader that's capable of accepting Near Field Communication contactless payments, with the aim of cutting costs for European merchants.

"While the major mobile phone manufacturers and card providers have already started to implement NFC to enable consumers, the merchant-side NFC terminals have to date been costly and uncommon in everyday use for most smaller business owners," says payleven in a March 19 press release.

The card reader will be available in the second quarter of 2014.

The use of contactless cards has spiked in the U.K. in the past year. Visa Europe recently reported that the value of transactions using contactless cards increased more than three-fold in 2013. And MasterCard has seen a similar trend, reporting a 220% growth in the number of its contactless transactions in Europe.

"NFC definitely has the potential to become the market standard for contactless payments," says Konstantin Wolff, founder and chief marketing officer of payleven, in the press release. "By launching our new device we will be offering a disruptive solution that will help our customers to keep up with cutting edge technology, making their business even more efficient with NFC."

Payleven, which offers a standalone EMV card reader that uses Bluetooth to communicate with the user's phone, competes with iZettle and PayPal Here in the European market.