National Australia Bank is launching a mobile banking app that offers customers a ‘digital credit card’ for contactless transactions less than $100.
NAB’s new Mobile Banking app – to be launched later this year – includes a ‘digital contract’ feature which the bank says is not seen anywhere else in the world. The feature lets customers immediately complete Visa credit card transactions through NAB Pay without having to wait for the physical card to arrive in the mail.
NAB struck an agreement with Visa last year when the card issuer made available through its Visa Developer Platform enabling the bank to enhance the card control features in its mobile banking app.
Mark Jamison, global head of Visa Developer, said in a statement that the NAB team saved around 6 months of development time by connecting with Visa’s developers. These features will enable customers to select and modify when and how their Visa debit and credit cards can be used, NAB said.
“Customers will be able to control what type of payments can be made through the app; for example, if you’ve provided a secondary card to a family member, you can choose ‘don’t allow’ for online purchases on that card,” said NAB’s executive general manager for consumer lending, Angus Gilfillan.
Other capabilities inside the new app include the ability for customers to place a temporary block on a card that may have been lost or stolen.
An open pilot of the new app will commence soon for compatible Android devices. Customers who want to participate will be able to visit the Google Play Store and download the new app. Customers with iOS devices will also be piloting the app over the coming weeks.
During the pilot and after the app is launched in full later this year, features on the app will be released in stages, NAB said.
NAB will also this week launch NAB PayTag, a sticker which can be attached to mobile devices to enable contactless payments linked to a customer’s Visa debit card.
NAB launched its mobile payments service in January this year on the Android platform.
NAB is the first Australian bank to use the Visa Token Service in Australia. This service replaces a customer’s credit card number with a unique digital token that can be used for digital payments without revealing sensitive information.
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