Visa Inc. and Visa Europe announced that NFC-enabled smartphones from Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Research In Motion (RIM) have been certified for use with Visa payWave, its mobile application for payments at the point of sale. 

"This is an important step for Visa, its financial institution partners and the mobile industry," said Bill Gajda, Global Head of Mobile Products, Visa Inc. "In addition to issuing plastic magnetic stripe or chip-enabled payment cards, financial institutions can now consider offering their account holders a way to transform their smartphones into fully-functional mobile payment devices."

Among the devices certified are the Samsung Galaxy SII, LG Optimus NET NFC and several BlackBerry devices like the Bold 9900 and Bold 9790.

The devices now certified by Visa host the Visa payWave application on a secure SIM card. Visa said its certification of the devices will lead to mobile device manufacturers, mobile operators and retailers joining financial institutions in offering Visa mobile payment functionality to consumers globally.

In its announcement, Visa said Visa payWave on mobile devices is compatible with existing payment terminals using NFC technologies. The company said its certification process will ensure the devices are interoperable and can integrate with the existing payments ecosystem. 

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