Today, the Executive Summary of the Security Element Technical Analysis is published, with the conclusion that the three Security Element alternatives with highest potential for general purpose Security Element, both in remote and local environments, for mobile financial services are: SIM, Embedded Chip, and Secure Memory Card (SMC) as Security Element platform.

The other evaluated Security Elements were Advanced Secure USB memory device, Removable Chip and Software based Security Element.

The Security Element Analysis concludes that all of the Security Element alternatives have several challenges on their way to becoming widely accepted by all the mobile financial services stakeholders. It is very likely that the market will adopt several Security Elements which are supported in different market segments and in different handset models. Examples of applications where a Security Element is needed are: mobile banking, remote payments, stored-value local payments, authentication and card-based local payments.

While the handset and proximity transaction technologies have developed positively, the lack of success in implementing an independent security element in the handset has become the final and most important challenge today. Mobile handsets need a Security Element in order to store and process the payment and other required credentials, sensitive data, and to facilitate mobile financial services. The Security Element is seen as a dynamic environment where applications are downloaded, personalised, managed and removed, independently of each other and with varying life cycles.

Completion of the Security Element Analysis has been the first part of a broader analysis Mobey Forum set underway earlier this year. The Mobile Financial Services Business Ecosystem Analysis, built on the three most suitable Security Element alternatives, will be studied by Mobey Forum during the rest of the year 2005. Mobey Forum sees a Business Ecosystem as an environment where key stakeholders enabling mobile financial services achieve a reasonable balance between competitive freedom and strategic dependencies while allowing the freedom of choice to the market, both end users and merchants. The successful Security Element alternative(s) will be the one(s) that can create and sustain commercially viable business models and attract the interest not only of financial institutions, but other key stakeholders as well. In order to make the Business Ecosystem evaluation broad and accurate, Mobey Forum invites and encourages industry stakeholders to participate and contribute in the further work.

Bo Harald, Chairman of the Mobey Forum said, "Finishing the Security Element Analysis is the first step of the comprehensive evaluation of the mobile financial services Business Ecosystem to be completed by Mobey Forum later this year. In order to promote cross-industry cooperation and implementations for the benefit of all parties involved in the mobile financial services value chain, Mobey Forum invites and encourages other industry stakeholders, such as mobile terminal manufacturers, credit card companies, mobile network operators and other technology companies to join in this ambitious work."

Mobey Forum member companies include: ABN AMRO, Accenture, Bank of Ireland, BBS, BBVA, DnB NOR, HSBC, Hewlett-Packard, MBNA, Meridea, M-Systems, Nordea, Nokia, NCR, OTP Bank, Sampo, The Royal Bank of Scotland, TietoEnator and UBS.