Iceland is joining the world of mobile payments. According to an announcement from card issuer Valitor, software developed in partnership with Point, a provider of electronic payment solutions, will enable merchant acceptance of both contactless Visa cards and mobile payments using Visa's PayWave contactless standard.

The software is the first in Iceland to offer mobile payments and to be certified by VISA Europe and approved under Visa PayWave standards, the company said.

"This is a major step towards establishing contactless payments in Iceland," said Valitor executive director for corporate solutions Sigurhans Vignir. "With this development in place, we can prepare merchants with a pilot phase where Valitor will initiate contactless card and smartphone payments in cooperation with all card issuers in the country, as well as with two of the country's largest network providers Siminn and Vodafone."

Valitor said the software is currently in being tested but will be available through VeriFone POS terminals from Point.

Read more about contactless/NFC.