Visa Inc. and Visa Europe on Wednesday have certified  NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled smartphones from Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Research In Motion (RIM) for use with Visa’s mobile application for payments at the point-of-sale, Visa payWave.

The smartphones which have been added to the list of Visa compliant payment products are Samsung Galaxy SII, LG Optimus NET NFC, BlackBlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380have been added to the list of Visa compliant payment products available for commercial deployment by financial institutions.

This will help mobile device manufacturers, mobile operators and retailers to partner with financial institutions to offer Visa mobile payment functionality to consumers globally.

These devices have got certifications from Visa host the Visa payWave application on a secure SIM card and feature NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, the short range communications standard that enables mobile phones to securely transmit payment information to a contactless payment terminal.

"This is an important step for Visa, its financial institution partners and the mobile industry," said Bill Gajda, Global Head of Mobile Product, Visa Inc. "In addition to issuing plastic magnetic stripe or chip-enabled payment cards, financial institutions can now consider offering their accountholders a way to transform their smartphones into fully functional mobile payment devices."