Spain's BBVA has become the first major global bank to commercially launch a host card emulation-based mobile contactless payments service.
BBVA has taken advantage of Visa's backing for HCE to bypass the mobile operators and their control of the Secure Element, instead storing payment data in the cloud.
The bank has already introduced the new service in Spain through an update of its BBVA Wallet app, opening up NFC payments to customers with handsets running the latest version of Google's Android system.
Taking advantage of the freedom HCE offers, BBVA is now concentrating on quickly rolling out the technology in other countries, beginning with the US, Mexico and Chile.
Mehmet Sezgin, global payment systems director, BBVA, says: "Our goal is for BBVA Wallet to become a product that is carried by and used by our customers across all the geographical areas in which we operate."
Jeremy Nicholds, executive director, mobile, Visa Europe, adds: "Cloud-based payments and HCE functionality is helping improve the time to market for banks looking to offer mobile contactless to their customers, while broadening the accessibility for consumers."