"Many think of payments when they hear NFC, but the technology opens the door to many industries for innovative applications, such as ticketing, digital content exchange, secure identification, social networking, and communication between electronic devices," said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "The Mobile and NFC Council will provide a bridge between NFC technologies and the industries who want to adopt NFC-enabled mobile devices to discuss and promote common standards and best practices."

The Council -- which has attracted over 60 organizations and more than 120 individuals to date -- will take a broad industry view and bring together stakeholders in the different vertical markets that can benefit from mobile and NFC applications including payments, loyalty, marketing, promotion/coupons/offers, peer-to-peer, identity, access control and transit applications. Council activities will include:

Providing educational resources for organizations offering or implementing NFC applications and services to foster deployment of NFC technology in the marketplace
Providing a business-focused organization where all industry stakeholders can collaborate, network, share implementation experiences, and discuss new mobile and NFC applications
Identifying and collaborating with other industry organizations to discuss, define and promote standards for NFC application implementations

The Mobile and NFC Council will be managed by a newly formed cross-industry steering committee elected this month. Members of the 2012/2013 Steering Committee are:

Trusted service managers: Amol Deshmukh, Gemalto; Sridher Swaminathan, First Data Corporation
NFC chip and secure element manufacturers: Scott Allan, NXP Semiconductors; Brent Bowen, INSIDE Secure
NFC tag suppliers: Rob Zivney, Identive
NFC security/testing/certification labs: Berend van Geffen, Collis
Consultants/consulting firms/mobile solutions evangelists: Deborah Baxley, Cgelists: Deborah Baxley, Capgemini; Nick Norman, Consult Hyperion
Systems integrators: Doug Morgan, C-SAM
Financial institutions: Peter Ho, Wells Fargo; Scott Rau, Chase
Payment brands: Josh Kessler, MasterCard Worldwide; Chandra Srivastava, Visa, Inc.
POS equipment supplier: JC Raynon, VeriFone; Gerald Schoenecker, Ingenico
Value-added service providers: Javed Chaudry, ViVOtech; David deKozan, Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc.

"At this point in the commercial evolution of NFC technology, it is essential that organizations from all sectors of the global ecosystem work together to bring its benefits to more people in more ways," said Debbie Arnold, director, NFC Forum. "The Mobile and NFC Council will play a key role in nurturing these opportunities, and the NFC Forum looks forward to collaborating with the Smart Card Alliance in this vital work."

GlobalPlatform, the organization which standardizes the management of applications on secure chip technology, fully supports the formation of the NFC and Mobile Council. Kevin Gillick, GlobalPlatform's Executive Director, comments: "Creating an environment that brings together diverse industry stakeholders to collaborate and discuss how NFC will be brought to market is key to the successful deployment of this technology. GlobalPlatform's Mobile Task Force, which works to align GlobalPlatform Specifications with the needs of the NFC community, looks forward to engaging with this new group to promote the use of standards and achieve ultimate consumer convenience."