ANZ to use Visa payWave at ANZ Centre (PDF 36kB)
In an Australian first, ANZ today announced it will roll out more than 6,500 multifunctional Visa payWave contactless payment cards, ahead of an intended customer roll-out, at ANZ Centre, the Bank’s new global headquarters in Melbourne’s Docklands.
The cards will be used by ANZ staff members who are located at ANZ Centre.
They will serve as:
Photographic identification security access cards for the building.
Reloadable prepaid Visa cards, featuring Visa payWave technology that will allow staff who load the card to make contactless purchases valued up to $100 at 11 retail outlets and 80 special vending machines in and around ANZ Centre.
Printout collection cards, ensuring secure shared print services and encouraging ANZ staff to reduce paper wastage.
ANZ will begin offering contactless card readers to merchants before the end of the year and intends to begin a pilot card issuance program soon with customers to demonstrate the convenience offered by the technology. ANZ Group General Manager Innovation, Peter Dalton, said the multifunctional Visa payWave cards were an adaptation of the available technology that would improve efficiency and eliminate the need to issue three cards for three different purposes.
“The roll-out of these cards at ANZ Centre gives us the opportunity to demonstrate the flexibility that Visa payWave offers and to showcase a technology that we expect will be widely used by our customers in coming years,’’ he said.
Contactless transactions do not require a signature or PIN when used for purchases up to $100 and are up to three times faster than cash – taking between four and six seconds per transaction. Visa payWave, Visa’s contactless technology feature, is based on the secure EMV chip platform.
Each card contains a tiny embedded computer chip that sends payment information to a contactless card reader via short-range radio frequency waves. Visa’s General Manager for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, Chris Clark, said: “This exciting development puts ANZ at the cutting-edge of contactless smart card technology and shows that one card can be used for multiple applications.
The card eliminates the need for staff to carry cash for every day purchases such as snacks and coffee, while the chip ensures that transactions are highly secure.”