Mobile payments are quickly finding a place in the daily lives of Italians and are expected to spread rapidly, according to a recent study by SIA.

The study, which queried a select group of testers and merchants who participated in mobile payment pilot projects, also found that consumers would like the use of mobile phones to extend to purchases such as travel tickets and hosting documents such as insurance cards, as well as loyalty cards, discount vouchers and coupons, according to a news release.

The study findings were presented during this week's SIA Expo 2013, an event dedicated to digital money and innovation.

According to the release, SIA designed and created the first interoperable hub for payments by NFC mobile phones in Europe, to which a number of Italian banks and telecom operators have already subscribed.

The study reveals that 94 percent of respondents favor mobile payments, and also notes that the average number of monthly transactions by mobile phone is higher than that for cards, primarily for amounts below €25 that don't require a PIN number. Use is mainly at supermarkets or shopping malls (71 percent), followed by restaurants (44 percent) and bars, newsstands and tobacconists (29 percent).

The study also found that men are more likely to repeat the same purchases, while women tend to experiment with mobile payments. Further, men consider the tool suitable only for small purchases, while women are more likely to use it to pay much larger sums.

According to the survey, speed is the most highly prized feature (indicated by 59 percent of testers), followed by the practicality and convenience of having a single tool (47 percent) and the simplification that comes from eliminating cash and cards (21 percent). Twelve percent pointed to user-friendliness — the fact that a PIN is not required for small amounts — and the simplicity of the payment itself.

Testers also said practicality (77 percent), speed (75 percent) and convenience (73 percent) give mobile payments the edge over debit and credit cards.

Among areas of concern, respondents cited limited training and familiarity of merchants with mobile payment (56 percent), technical faults (32 percent) and poor distribution of contactless POS terminals (29 percent).

The study also looked at the experience of merchants, who identified three clear advantages of mobile payments technology. Typically, according to the release, merchants said the merits of payments via mobile phone are largely related to consumer experience (convenience and speed as key factors), while large organizations demonstrate a wider vision that also includes the point of sale (security, the primary feature of virtual money compared to cash).

The takeaway, according to SIA, is that NFC technology can have benefits for both the clientele and the point of sale.

On the other hand, the company said, merchants point to several disadvantages, such as poor distribution of the technology among customers, the general resistance of Italians to new technologies and the presumed difficulty of use for some classes of customers.

"The results of the experiments over the past year with various banks and telcos confirm that mobile payments arouse great interest and can change behavior and habits," Massimo Arrighetti, CEO of SIA, said in the release. "The gradual process of eliminating cash is underway, also due to the new generations of users, and the mobile phone can certainly make an enormous contribution to the development of new payment methods and other services useful in our daily lives. However, it is necessary to create real situations in which to use them and to promote collaboration among all the players involved."

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