Customers of Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo can now make host card emulation (HCE) based NFC mobile payments using a new service called PayGo.

“To make payments, customers need to place their smartphone near a contactless POS terminal, having typed the unique PIN that they have chosen to make near-field payments into their telephone,” the bank says. “Payments are made with mobile phones just like they would be with any other contactless credit, debit or prepaid card.

“The service can be activated through the Sanpaolo La Tua Banca app — it is currently available for all NFC-enabled Android smartphones and in the next few months will be extended to other operating systems.”

“Intesa Sanpaolo does not apply any cost for the service,” the bank adds. “11 million Italians could potentially use the service. The number of contactless points of sale enabled to offer the service represents 30% of all POS terminals in Italy.”

“Making payments is one of the most common everyday activities and for this reason they must be quick, simple and secure,” says Massimo Tessitore, head of the integrated multichannel department at Intesa Sanpaolo. “We have chosen a solution that meets all these requirements.”

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