Orange and Visa Europe join forces to launch Orange Cash

Paris - The aim of this partnership is to raise awareness of the benefits of NFC (1) for the customers in an increasingly favourable environment for mobile payment. The number of contactless payment terminals used by French merchants has increased by more than 50% over the past six months to reach 200,000 active terminals in France today, which has been complimented by the mass deployment of NFC mobile phones in France..

Orange is offering its customers equipped with NFC compatible mobiles the opportunity to pay retailers simply and securely with Orange Cash. This mobile prepayment solution, the first of its kind in France, uses contactless Visa technology pre-loaded on all Orange NFC SIM cards. The service is based on a solution designed and managed in collaboration with the Wirecard Group and Wirecard Card Solutions, Member of Visa Europe.

Orange customers will be able to download the Orange Cash app from the apps store and top up their prepaid Orange Cash account with the amount they choose in just a few clicks using their bank card. To pay, they will just need to place their mobile on an NFC payment terminal at a retailer’s premises. For all payments of over €20, users will be asked for a secret code they will have chosen, which is different from their bank card PIN code.

Thierry Millet, Vice President - Mobile Payments and NFC, Orange, said: "Paying with your smartphone is a new function which will take off due to its practicality in everyday life. By launching Orange Cash, we want to accelerate the adoption of mobile payment generally and, of course, among our customers via a simple and secured solution, which offers many advantages. The partnership with Visa Europe increases our customers’ confidence and ensures acceptance of Orange Cash at a large number of sales points in France and abroad.”

Sandra Alzetta, Executive Director – Mobile, Visa Europe, said: “Our partnership with Orange marks a significant step in the adoption of mobile payment. This agreement is based both on Orange’s unique expertise in NFC and Visa’s technologies, and the trust placed in our respective brands. This partnership is in line with our innovation strategy and allows us to offer a service which makes consumers’ everyday lives easier.”

Orange Cash will be made available to Orange customers in Strasbourg and Caen in early 2014, ahead of a nationwide roll-out in the second quarter of the year. The launch will speed up the adoption of mobile payments and support the offers from bank partners of Orange and members of Visa.

1/ NFC : Near Field Communication, technologie sans contact

about Visa Europe

Visa Europe is a payments technology business owned and operated by member banks and other payment service providers from 37 countries across Europe.

Visa Europe works at the forefront of technology to create the services and infrastructure which enable millions of European consumers, businesses and governments to make electronic payments. Its members are responsible for issuing cards, signing up retailers and deciding cardholder and retailer fees.
Visa Europe operates a high volume, low cost business model that provides services to its members. Its surplus is reinvested into the business and used to improve capital and reserves. In the last six years, Visa Europe has invested over €1 billion in new technology and infrastructure.

There are 470m Visa cards in Europe while €1 in every €6.75 spent in Europe is on a Visa card. Almost 80% of Visa Europe’s business is on debit cards and, in the year to December 2012, over €1 trillion (€1.05tr) was spent on Visa debit cards. Annual online spending on Visa cards in Europe topped €200 billion (€212bn) for the first time in this period and now accounts for more than 20% of Visa Europe’s processed business.

Since 2004, Visa Europe has been independent of Visa Inc. and incorporated in the UK, with an exclusive, irrevocable and perpetual license in Europe. Both companies work in partnership to enable global Visa payments. As a dedicated European payment system Visa Europe is able to respond quickly to the specific market needs of European banks and their customers - cardholders and retailers - and to meet the European Commission’s objective to create a true internal market for payments.

For more information, please visit www.visaeurope.com


about Orange

Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 43.5 billion euros in 2012 and has 166,000 employees worldwide at 30 September 2013, including 102,000 employees in France. Present in 32 countries, the Group has a total customer base of more than 232 million customers at 30 September 2013, including 175 million mobile customers and 15 million fixed broadband customers worldwide. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services.
Orange is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).

For more information on the internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.