Small Merchants Get PIN-Steering Feature

Visa Inc. has equipped more than 5,000 London retailers with its contactless payWave technology and expects that number to reach 13,000 by the end of the year. By 2012, when London plays host to the Olympic Games, payWave readers will be ubiquitous, according to Visa executive Guido Mangiagalli, who spoke to retailers late last month in London about the contactless rollout. Visa declines to say how many payWave terminals it has deployed for the Beijing Olympics, which begin in August. So far, Visa says it has worked with Olympic sponsor Bank of China to install an ATM network and hundreds of point-of-sale acceptance devices at competition venues and elsewhere in Beijing. Throughout China, Visa has installed more than 90,000 ATMs and has signed up some 190,000 merchant locations or outlets for card acceptance to help prepare for the Olympics and beyond, a spokesperson says. http://www.cardforum.com http://www.sourcemedia.com