Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) announced today that around 1 million Visa cardholders in Switzerland now have access to the newly launched Apple Pay – giving users an easy, secure and private way to pay. At launch Cornèrcard and Bonuscard.ch customers will be able to use Apple Pay. Apple Pay can be used with any of the over 100,000 contactless point-of-sale terminals in Switzerland. By 2020, all Visa payment terminals will accept contactless payments.

Stefan Holbein, Country Manager Visa Europe Schweiz, commented: “With today’s launch of Apple Pay, a global mobile payment solution based on credit cards and NFC (contactless) entered the Swiss market. Given the iPhone population in Switzerland is extremely high, the launch of Apple Pay is sure to make it the most convenient mobile payment solution for Switzerland.”

Apple Pay can be used wherever Visa contactless payment is accepted. To accept Visa with Apple Pay, retailers do not need any changes to terminals or point-of-sale infrastructure, since mobile payments work with the same technology as contactless Visa card payments. Contactless payment is rapidly developing in Europe. During the 12 months to April 2016, Visa Europe facilitated 3 billion contactless payments. In Europe, contactless payments via cards or smartphones represent one in five Visa transactions at payment terminals. Compared to 2014, this proportion has increased from 4.1% to 21.1%.

Security and privacy is at the core of Apple Pay. At launch, BonusCard.ch and Cornèrcard customers will be able to use Apple Pay. When adding a Visa credit to Apple Pay, the actual payment card details are not stored on the device nor on Apple’s servers. Instead, Visa generates a unique token or Device Account Number which is assigned and stored on the device and protects consumers because the token can be used to authorize payments without allowing access to the actual account or card information. If, for instance, a device carrying a token (such as iPhone or iPad) is lost or stolen, the token associated with a given payment service can be easily and promptly disabled. This can happen without the need to cancel and re-issue the underlying Visa card, or any other tokens associated with the cardholder’s account that have not been compromised. Because consumers are using their Visa cards within Apple Pay, they will be covered by all the same benefits they currently enjoy with their credit cards.

Visa Europe’s tokenisation service enables Visa card holders to add their cards to the Apple Wallet quickly and easily, and pay in a secure and private way. Visa card holders can either select the card currently used in the iTunes account or they can add a new credit card. When making a purchase in store, Visa cardholders just hold the iPhone to a contactless terminal with their finger held to Touch ID. In stores, Apple Pay works with iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and later, iPhone SE and Apple Watch.

For more information on Apple Pay, visit: http://www.apple.com/ch/apple-pay/