Visa and MasterCard report strong bank uptake for HCE-based mobile payments

Banco do Brazil, PNC Bank and US Bank are set to join the growing band of finacial services firms working with Visa to offer their customers HCE-based contactless mobile payments.

A year ago Visa and MasterCard both announced support for HCE (Host Card Emulation), a cloud-based mechanism for hosting NFC applications outside the Secure Element that effectively removes the need for bank reliance on telcos in implementing mobile payments.

12 months on, both card giants are claiming significant interest in the technology. MasterCard says that it it has HCE-based projects underway in 15 countries, with pilots taking place in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, the UK and US.

Meanwhlie, Visa has worked with Spain's BBVA and Australia's Cuscal on similar projects that have already launched, while Banco do Brazil, PNC Bank and US Bank are set to follow suit.

Visa Europe says that over 30 banks are set to go live with HCE implementations by the end of the year. The card scheme says that seven member banks are already using HCE-based Android apps in Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey.

To use these new mobile payment services, consumers download their bank's app from the Google Play store, enrol and start paying in-store with their Visa accounts by waving their Android mobile phone in front of a contactless reader.

"2015 is the year in which fast and safe mobile payments based on Visa technology will proliferate across the world," says Sam Shrauger, SVP, digital solutions, Visa.

Related Companies

Mastercard Banco do Brasil BBVA PNC Financial Services Group US Bank Visa

Channels

Retail banking Payments

Keywords

Cards Mobile & online banking Eftpos

Comments: (3)

A Finextra member 28 February, 2015, 12:58

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Mobile offers a much faster way to make secure payments and it also has the potential to integrate with other forms of mobile banking functionality, supporting better money management.

HCE is supported by the majority of smart phones. Banks and merchants can deliver secure mobile payments to consumers today using HCE with tokenization, device fingerprinting, risk modeling and robust on_device software. You may have the added advantage of delivering services through your own branded apps instead of a wallet, amazing tech advancement IMO.

I look forward to using it. (But hopefully not TOO much, gotta pinch pennies, ha)

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James Piggot - Finastra - London 02 March, 2015, 11:24

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Look forward to being able to leave my wallet at home, never seem to have the right loyalty card to get the relevant discount or accumulate points.

And how about electronic receipts and vouchers stored directly on the mobile device, no more paper receipts. This is something that already happens with online shopping, no need for paper invoice as proof of purchase is right there in your email inbox.

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Ketharaman Swaminathan - GTM360 Marketing Solutions - Pune 02 March, 2015, 15:20

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3G doesn't work at many malls where I live in Pune. While MNOs are the obvious suspects, I don't credit them with such pinpointed degree of incompetence. Therefore, I must assume that showrooming has become such a big issue that brick-and-mortar retail has started jamming mobile signal. Thankfully, my KeyRing app doesn't need data, so I can still use it instead of carrying a stack of plastic loyalty cards. However, I can no longer access my inbox while I'm in a mall. I never did like e-receipts. Now I've got one more reason to insist on paper receipts. While some stores have started offering free WiFi, I avoid it because the technology allows massive amount of spying by stores into information stored on my smartphone.