Mobile Payment Magazine

Gemalto Mobile NFC Payment Application Certified by MasterCard

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Digital security company, Gemalto, has announced the first UICC-embedded software application compliant with Mobile MasterCard PayPass M/Chip 4, the brand new MasterCard payment specification designed for mobile near field communications (NFC).

The software application and the UICC have both successfully achieved the compliance assessment and security testing certification in accordance with MasterCard’s highest chip security requirements.

The certification paves the way for mass commercial rollouts of NFC payment across the world. In the UK, Gemalto is already partnering with a global, first-tier financial institution and a world leading mobile operator, to implement the new MasterCard certified mobile payment application and carry out the solution’s first mass commercial roll out.

Gemalto’s software application embeds the Trusted Service Management interface for PayPass. This feature enables mobile account issuance and over-the-air management. Its handset interface makes mobile NFC payment convenient—for example allowing consumers to manage the new payment means and check transaction history. It also allows consumers to define their mobile Personal Identification Number (PIN), a code of their choice, through their phone. The mobile PIN is a new cardholder verification method used notably to secure operations such as account top-up from the mobile phone.

The Gemalto mobile NFC payment application can be configured to cover all card portfolios including debit, credit and prepaid. For prepaid, the software application lets consumers to top-up their prepaid accounts directly from their mobile phones.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Gemalto to broadly expand the use of mobile payment services,” commented James Anderson, vice president, Mobile, MasterCard Worldwide. “Leveraging the interoperability of MasterCard PayPass, Gemalto’s effort will enable cross-border mobile NFC payment, adding ease to the fast-paced lifestyles of more and more consumers across the world.”

“This new certification from MasterCard makes Gemalto the first on the market for this mobile product and will enable banks and wireless operators to offer a secure, innovative and convenient payment means to their entire customer base,” added Jean-Claude Deturche, senior vice-president of mobile financial solutions at Gemalto. “Gemalto is committed to supporting its customers in their large scale deployments of mobile NFC payment, with a complete mobile contactless offer.”

Source: Gemalto

airtel Africa, Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard Win Best Mobile Money Product or Solution Award

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airtel Africa, Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard Worldwide were honored for mobile payments innovation at the 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards held during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011. The recently launched virtual card product, developed in collaboration between airtel Africa, Standard Chartered and MasterCard, received top honors as the Best Mobile Money Product or Solution.

Honored by a panel of mobile industry experts, the virtual card product was recognized as an innovative mobile payments solution that will offer consumers in Kenya, and eventually across Africa, greater participation in the financial system through mobile commerce. In collaboration between airtel Africa and Standard Chartered, the virtual card product is powered by MasterCard inControl (TM) technology and enables more people to connect to the global marketplace through their mobile phones.

Andre Beyers, airtel Africa’s chief marketing officer, and Daniel Monehin, area head, East & West Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, MasterCard Worldwide, received the award on behalf of the three companies at the Global Mobile Awards 2011 ceremony held at the Fira De Barcelona in Montjuïc, Barcelona, Spain.

The virtual card product enables airtel Africa customers in Kenya to use their mobile phone to make online purchases from MasterCard merchants around the world. The simplified online transaction works in the following way: each time an airtel customer is shopping online he or she will be able to request a single use shopping card number. airtel money services will then generate a special 16-digit number that enables the completion of the transaction. On completion of the transaction, a confirmation message will be sent to the consumer’s mobile phone. The single use feature of the virtual card product provides the consumer with a convenient and secure online shopping experience.

“We partnered with Standard Chartered and MasterCard in a joint effort to create affordable and innovative mobile services for consumers across Africa,” said Beyers. “It is a tremendous honor to be recognized by our peers in the mobile industry for the virtual card product, which we hope will set a new industry standard for mobile payments.”

“We are extremely pleased that this concept has been selected for the GSMA 2011 Best Mobile Money Product or Solution Award. This global award is fitting testimony to telecom & banking companies in Africa, who are the ‘agents-of-change’ in the development of mobile finance and commerce,” said Jaydeep Gupta, Standard Chartered Bank’s regional head, Distribution & Alternate Channels for Africa, NGL, MESA & India. “We are proud of our unique partnership with airtel Africa and MasterCard. Together we will continue to deliver innovative payment solutions across our geographies.”

Said MasterCard’s Monehin, “Consumers are increasingly reliant on mobile technology at each step of their lives – from staying connected with their personal networks to making payments on-the-go. We joined hands with airtel Africa and Standard Chartered to create the virtual card product that not only enhances people’s purchasing experiences, but also creates a financially inclusive mobile platform for people in Africa. We believe that innovations like the virtual card product will help ensure the long-term growth and sustainability of mobile commerce in Africa. We are committed to improving industry collaboration and fostering innovation as well as building interoperability across closed loop systems in Africa and abroad.”

Source: MasterCard

South African Mobile Payment Gateway Will Bypass Visa and Mastercard Systems

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A local technology company called Lidonga Technology says it will launch a mobile payment gateway, a first for South Africa. The system will circumvent the use of foreign-owned Visa and Mastercard payment systems, saving the country billions of rands that would normally go to these foreign switching companies.

Chief Technology Officer at Lidonga Technology Roan Murray said Visa and Mastercard were making billions from South Africans who used debit and credit cards to shop as the country does not have an alternative payment system. Murray said Lidonga had designed a system called mokotla (a Sotho name that can be translated to mean a carrying case or wallet in this situation) to change this.

via Moneyweb.

MasterCard and Telefónica Announce Mobile Banking Initiative for Latin America

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MasterCard and Telefónica have announced a joint venture in the development of mobile financial solutions in twelve Latin American countries where Telefónica is present with the Movistar brand.

What is unique about this initiative is that it partners a payments company and a telecommunications company partner to create a new entity focused on integrating mobile phones and a  financial solutions that will work with existing electronic payment systems. [Read more…]

In Singapore, Trial NFC Mobile Payment Solution for StarHub Subscribers

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A select group of StarHub mobile plan subscribers from DBS, a Singapore bank offering services in corporate, SME, consumer and wholesale banking in Asia and the Middle East, will be part of a trial of the company’s NFC Mobile Payment Solution for everyday mobile payments.

The trial, which is expected to last 8 months, is jointly organized by DBS Bank, EZ-Link, Gemalto, MasterCard and StarHub. The service adds an N-Flex solution, which will transform the regular handsets into NFC-enabled mobile phones without any change to the device. Implementable on SIM cards across multiple mobile handsets, the N-Flex solution helps in standardization of the handsets supporting NFC. The solution supports the Single Wire Protocol (SWP), which has been endorsed by the GSM Association.

StarHub is a provider of information, communications and entertainment services to both consumer and corporate markets of Singapore. The company operates a fast two-way HSPA+ mobile network in the country that delivers up to 21Mbps data speed to the customers of its GSM network; and also runs a HFC network for delivering cable TV services such as high-def TV and on-demand services and high-speed residential broadband services to the consumers as well.

via: M2M: StarHub Enables DBS Customers to Use NFC Mobile Payment Solution.

U.S. Mobile Payment Market to Top $200 Billion by 2015, Says Research Report

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A recent report from Aite Group forecasts that U.S. mobile bill payments will reach more than $200  billion in 2015.

Aite Group interviewed more than 60 companies in the Fall of 2010 and produced a 65 page report that defines and segments the mobile payment industry, and includes an analysis of the competitive and market trends.

Each one of the multiple categories of mobile payments defined in the report will experience double-digit growth, with mobile payments accounting for  US$214 billion in gross dollar volume by 2015, up from US$16 billion in 2010–a 68% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2010 and 2015.

The report references the following companies: Allstate, Amazon, American Express, Apple, AT&T, Bango, Bank of America, Barclays, Bill2Mobile, BlackBerry, Bling Nation, BOKU, Brink’s, C-Sam, Cashedge, Cellfire, Chase, Chase Paymentech, Cimbal, ClairMail, coupons.com, Coupons Sherpa, Visa’s Cybersource, Device Fidelity, Diebold, Discover, Eagle Eye Solutions, eBay, Euronet, Facebook, First Data, FIS, Fiserv, Foursquare, Gemalto, Global Payments, Google, Gowalla, Green Dot, Groupon, Harland Financial Services, Heartland Payment Systems, Hipcricket, iLoop Mobile, Inside Contactless, Intuit, Jack Henry/iPay Technologies, Kubra, MasterCard, mFoundry, Mobile Coupons, Mocapay, MoneyGram, Monitise Group, mopay, MyWebGrocer, NCR, NetSpend, Nokia, Oberthur Technologies, Obopay, OfferIQ, Online Resources, PayPal, Plastyc, Pyxis Mobile, Research-in-Motion (RIM), Roam Data (Ingenico), Roamware, Rocketbuxx, SK C&C USA, Square, Starbucks, Sybase, T-Mobile, Tetherball, 3i Infotech, Tier Technologies, TransferTo, TSYS, Twitter, U.S. Bank, VeriFone, Verizon, Vesta, Visa, ViVOtech, Waspit, Way Systems, Western Union, Wincor Nixdorf, WirelessLoyalty, Xipwire, Yelp, and Zong.

More information: Aite Group Mobile Payment Report.

Source: Aite Group

7-Eleven Partners with PayNearMe for Mobile Payments at 7-Eleven Locations

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7-Eleven has participated in various tests of mobile-payment technology with MasterCard (MA), Nokia (NOK), and others. On Nov. 16, the company said it would help customers who want to use their mobile phones for payments—yet lack credit or debit cards—by partnering with PayNearMe, a cash-payment network.

via BusinessWeek.

DeviceFidelity and SpringCard Launch Moneto NFC Phone Cases as Mobile Wallet Solution

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Moneto, developed by DeviceFidelity, Inc. and Spring Card Systems, announced today the launch of its mobile payment solution–the moneto iPhone wallet, which is powered by MasterCard PayPass technology and linked to a general purpose reloadable MasterCard prepaid card.

“For over a decade, MasterCard has led the transformation of mobile phones into secure mobile payment devices,” said James Anderson, senior vice president, Mobile and Emerging payments at MasterCard. “We are excited to partner with moneto so that iPhone users can enjoy the convenience of paying for purchases with a simple ‘tap’ at thousands of PayPass locations around the globe.”

The moneto mobile payments technology uses a NFC-enabled microSD chip embedded in a patented, protective iPhone case. iPhone users sign up at moneto.me to receive the case, install the moneto app from the app store, and activate their account. Users can launch the moneto app to view their account balance, check transaction history and make everyday in-store purchases with a tap of their iPhone at any PayPass-enabled contactless payments reader at the point of sale. Users can fund their moneto prepaid account through direct deposit, ACH transfer or cash/credit/debit card-enabled third-party money transfer services such as MoneyGram, Western Union, PayPal or GreenDot.

“As this breakthrough mobile wallet launches in the US, it not only makes mobile payments available to iPhone users for the first time but it also opens the door for consumers to adopt NFC while pushing mobile commerce forward,” said Deepak Jain, DeviceFidelity President and CEO. “We are excited to partner with MasterCard and SpringCard to break the barriers for a rapid effective rollout that will spur both consumers and merchants to adopt this new wave of electronic commerce.”

moneto also comes with a companion prepaid MasterCard to give users the ability to access cash at ATMs and make online purchases, pay bills or shop at merchants that do not accept contactless payments. moneto also enables card-to-card and wire-fund transfers from a secure internet portal accessible via moneto.me.

“Consumers have been hearing about NFC and mobile wallets for years, now with moneto they can finally start using it and with the most popular smartphone device on the planet. The moneto mobile wallet app is focused on delivering a faster and easier shopping experience that is consumer friendly,” said Kevin Haddad, president of SpringCard. “Our vision is simple: People who use our applications should not have to worry ‘Will this work with my phone?’ as consumers can easily make secure purchases regardless of their phone, carrier, or bank.”

Safety and Security

Moneto users can prevent unauthorized access to their account using a PIN that is safely stored in a secure chip inside the microSD. The sleek and durable case design protects the iPhone and the NFC enabled microSD securely stores and encrypts the card information. Additionally, the moneto account is backed by MasterCard’s Zero Liability, which protects consumers against unauthorized purchases.

Availability

moneto for iPhone will be available for online ordering in the U.S. immediately at moneto.me for $79.95 which includes $10.00 of pre-loaded funds. The moneto mobile wallet is available in limited release on the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3. A number of Android models will also be supported by 2Q12. Additional phone support will be added throughout the year.

The moneto prepaid MasterCard card is issued by University National Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to a license from MasterCard International Incorporated. MasterCard and the MasterCard Brand Mark are registered trademarks of MasterCard International Incorporated.

Source: PR Web