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MILAN, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Italian payments systemstechnology and services group SIA expects its contactless mobilephone payment system to be launched on its home market in early2014, its chief executive said on Tuesday, as mobile users lookto a future with less cash.
Milan-based SIA, owned by a group of mostly Italian banks which according to recent media reports are looking to sell acontrolling stake, operates the bulk of Italy's payment systemsnetwork and is present in around 40 countries.
"Mobile payments will be launched in Italy at the beginningof 2014, before the end of March, and we are trying to replicatethis in other European countries," Massimo Arrighetti toldReuters on the margins of an industry conference in Milan.
"We take it for granted that 80 percent of smartphones andall shops will be equipped with the necessary technology in oneor two years," he said.
In a study commissioned by SIA, research firm ISPO said that94 percent of Italians liked the idea of contactless mobilepayments for their speed and practicality and the fact that nocash or bank cards are needed as virtual cards are insteaddownloaded onto the phone using a special SIA app.
Arrighetti also said SIA will test a platform for mobileticketing in three Italian cities next year with Telecom Italia. The platform - like the mobile payments system - isbased on NFC (near field communication) technology.
Unlike early mobile payment deals, which involved one-to-onearrangements between single banks and telecom companies, SIA'smobile system has an open architecture and allows users to keepusing the service even if they change bank or telecom provider.
"Our solution allows users to change bank without aninterruption of service. This is why we think it is a winningcard," he said.
SIA, whose technology managed 9.2 billion payments and 23.7billion trading operations in 2012, saw revenues rising 4.5percent to 348 million euros last year with core profits up 36percent to almost 65 million euros.
A similar open-ended system is being planned in Poland,where six banks, including biggest lender PKO BP, haveteamed up to create a payment system which could challenge thebusiness model of credit card companies such as MasterCard and Visa.
SIA's mobile phone payment system has already been adoptedby four mid-sized Italian lenders and by mobile networkoperators Vodafone, Vimpelcom's Wind andHutchison Whampoa's Tre Italia.
Arrighetti said he could not rule out the country's biggestphone group Telecom Italia and its largest lendersIntesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit joining.
"It's a work in progress," he said.
Arrighetti declined to comment on reports about a possibleownership change at SIA.
Italian daily La Repubblica said this earlier month thatstate-backed fund Fondo Strategico Italiano and infrastructurefund F2i were in advanced talks to buy 65 percent of SIA foraround 450 million euros from its four largest investors Intesa,Unicredit, Monte dei Paschi di Siena and BNP Paribas'sItalian unit BNL.
