The Google Wallet is enabled for the Ecuadorian market from February 28. This launch furthers the acceleration of the transformation of the country’s payments ecosystem towards digitization, said Armando Betancourt, Head of Partnerships, GPay Latam.

Ecuador thus becomes the first Andean country to have this technology.

“With the Google Wallet, we have a long-term goal, which is to help digitize the economies of Latin America. Figures show that digital wallets, which are easy to use and widely accessible, can fuel a 3 percentage point growth in countries’ GDP. By joining our efforts with industry, we can jointly promote the development of convenient and secure digital economies,” says Betancourt.

In the country, Produbanco and Diners are the first institutions to have the tool for Visa and MasterCard customers with Produbanco credit and debit cards, enabling their customers to add their cards and make contactless payments quickly and easily, with the privacy and security offered by Google Pay.

Google Pay is powered by Token Service technology that enables an even more secure and convenient payment experience, which is device-specific and linked to a dynamic security code that changes with every transaction.

According to figures from Visa credit card issuers, consumers in the region and in the country are interested in using innovative payment methods that are widely accepted, convenient and easy to use, such as contactless payments and digital wallets. In Ecuador, the Visa contactless payment penetration rate has increased significantly, from 21% in June 2021 to 48% in December 2022.

“Enabling innovations like the Google wallet in the country is an important step towards growing new contactless payment technologies and embedding Visa tokenization solutions. With our allies, we remain committed to a future of secure and inclusive cash flow with less use of cash,” said Humberto Guihur, Vice President of Innovation and Product for Visa Andes Region.

Using Google Pay

To use Google Pay, your mobile device must meet the following specifications

The tool, which will be available on Android phones, Wear OS and Fitbit devices, will allow users to make contactless payments from their phones or wearables using the Visa credit and debit cards they add.

In addition, users can update and manage the Wallet from the app or on a computer at myactivity.google.com/product/wallet.

If the user loses their device, they can simply use the “Find My Device” feature to instantly lock it from anywhere, protect it with a new password, or even erase personal information.