The Credit Bank of Moscow and Visa unveiled the fruit of their partnership, payment-enabled rings allowing customers to make purchases on any contactless payment terminal.
The Credit Bank of Moscow offers Visa payment rings with built-in near-field communication technology. The rings are made of shockproof and waterproof ceramics.
Customers must enter a PIN code to complete a purchase exceeding a 13 USD value. In case the ring is lost or stolen, the owner can have the device blocked by the bank independently from the credit card associated with the ring.
Recent analysis by Research Nester estimated that the wearable gadgets market will reach 52.5 billion USD in 2024 compared to 16.2 billion USD in 2016. In another research, Visa UK found that 76% of contactless transactions are made by consumers of the 18 - 35 years old demographic. As the wearable trend continues to grow, the launch of the Visa payment-enabled rings in Russia is expected to enhance consumer adoption of new payment technology.
A Visa official reported that nearly every fiftieth operation with Visa card was contactless in 2017 and, currently, every tenth operation with a Visa card is contactless. Russia is the contactless payment leader in the CEMEA region.
Visa previously tested NFC-enabled rings at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Both events tested a limited number of rings, 45 at the Rio Olympics and 6500 at the World Cup, alongside waterproof NFC-enabled armbands, with respectively 3000 and 30 000 armbands. The wearables were used as prepaid cards, requiring the customers to load credit onto them prior to making purchases.
