SoftPOS Turns Smartphones and Tablets into a Contactless Payment Terminal

First Data, together with Visa and Samsung, showcased the company’s new Software Point of Sale (SoftPOS) solution during IFA 2019. It enables contactless payments of any amount via a smartphone or tablet, in the same way a traditional payment terminal functions but with no additional equipment.

SoftPOS enables this functionality on an everyday mobile device using embedded near-field communication (NFC) functionality. The merchant’s phone will accept contactless transactions from existing contactless cards, other NFC-enabled mobile phones, or other NFC-enabled devices such as wearables and key fobs. A SoftPOS pilot will take place in Poland by the end of 2019. The pilot program will expand thereafter, initially in the EMEA and APAC regions.

In addition to international cooperation, each of the participating companies contribute technology to make SoftPOS one of the most advanced payment solutions in the world. Visa’s contactless capability enables quick and secure contactless transactions. Fiserv ensures swift and secure settlement of transactions via a simple and intuitive mobile app, and Samsung provides multi-layered security protocols in both hardware and software, as well as a vast array of mobile devices.

“As contactless payments grow in popularity it is important that merchants are able to enable these payments on mobile devices. SoftPOS has been designed to meet the current and future needs of consumers and entrepreneurs and will change the way people make daily payments, facilitating the convenient, quick, and secure processing of contactless transactions,“ said John Gibbons, executive vice president and head of EMEA, Fiserv.

“This project could only launch in a country where contactless payments are highly popular, and Poland is among global leaders in this method of payment. With this technology we are able to rapidly expand access of card and digital payments across Poland, even for the micro business owner who is still in many places accepting only cash today,“ said Katarzyna Zubrzycka, Head of Merchant Sales & Acquirer, Central Eastern Europe, Visa.

“With SoftPOS, we address our vision to become an innovator of new mobile experience, through advanced technology and products. Thanks to defense-grade Samsung Knox Security Platform, Customers can be sure that their payments will be safe“  said HS Myung, VP, Global Mobile B2B Team, Head of EU/CIS, North/Latin America, Global Channel Sales, Samsung Electronics.