The Mobey Forum, a bank-backed mobile payment consortium, has expanded its membership roster to include Sony Ericsson, Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne, Meridea Financial Software, NCR Corporation and the Austrian Society for Research and Cooperation in Payment Systems (Stuzza).
The Forum advocates a dual chip handset, with one chip under the control of the network operator and the other under control of the bank. The first phase is implementable within months for mag-stripe card payments using radio frequency IDs and a separate keypad solution at the point of sale for PIN entry.
Welcoming the new members, Bo Harald, chairman of the Mobey Forum and e-banking executive at Nordea says: "The addition of a further leading global player in mobile telecommunications, a financial institution, the leading Austrian banking association and key technology vendors reinforces the already influential set of Mobey Forum members."
He says their membership brings to the Forum expertise in hardware and software solutions and services for financial service providers, "important elements for the delivery of m-commerce and the conversion of Mobey Forum solutions into deliverable products."
In September, the Forum took a significant step towards implementation by demonstrating transactions at a point-of-sale terminal and cash withdrawals from an ATM, using a Nokia handset.