Want to buy that periodical to support the homeless but don't have any cash in your pockets? That's no longer a problem in Stockholm, where the hometown payments firm iZettle is providing a solution that lets the publication purveyors accept mobile payments.

According to The Guardian, Swedish firm iZettle has been working with Situation Sthlm, a street newspaper sold by homeless people, to supply the sellers with smartphones and card readers that allow them to process debit and credit card transactions on the spot. Situation Sthlm, which was founded almost 20 years ago, is similar to the U.K.'s Big Issue, which publishes professional writing in a publication sold by the homeless or disadvantaged on the streets.

As the newspaper reports, iZettle provides a small unit that plugs into a smartphone to allow cards to be swiped. The card owner signs on-screen or enters a PIN into the reader.

During a month-long trial, the paper added, five sellers equipped with smartphones and a reader sold the papers, which cost just under five pounds.

Jacob de Geer, iZettle CEO, told the newspaper that Sweden is edging closer to a "cashless society" where people under age 40 rarely carry cash, and that the public trust their card details to homeless people because they trust the credit card system.

"The banks have done a great job with the card infrastructure so that it is so robust, secure and trusted that people don't really mind where they use their cards these days with the chip," he said.

EMV technology, better known as chip and pin in the UK, rolled out there nationwide in 2004. It replaced the old magnetic swipe and signature authorization process with a secure chip that is authenticated when the user enters a PIN.

The U.K. is one of iZettle's strongest growth markets, The Guardian said, with thousands of card readers and accounts being set up every month.

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