Australia’s Westpac bank is to launch its NFC mobile payments service on Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 devices “over the next few weeks” with the functionality being “rolled out progressively” from this month. By 2015, the bank predicts, three million Australians will be using NFC to make payments.

The handsets utilise Visa’s Mobile Provisioning Solution (VMPS) to let users make NFC payments using secure elements embedded in the Samsung mobile phones. Payments are managed through Westpac’s mobile banking app and the new ‘pay’ feature will allow customers to select which of their cards they wish to use to make a particular payment as well as change their settings. Customers will be able to make payments wherever MasterCard PayPass and Visa PayWave are accepted.

“With contactless transactions now becoming available on people’s mobile phones, starting with the popular Samsung Galaxy smartphones, it’s going to make transactions even faster and more convenient for customers,” said David Lindberg, Westpac’s chief product officer.

“Based on existing uptake of contactless card technology, together with customer usage of our mobile and online banking platforms, we anticipate that there will be around three million Australians making contactless payments using their mobile in 2015. In line with this, we believe that there will be nearly $3bn worth of contactless mobile transactions made in 2015.”

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