Mobile phones have increasingly become tools that consumers use for banking, payments, budgeting, and shopping. Given the rapid pace of developments in the area of mobile finance, the Federal Reserve Board began conducting annual surveys of consumers’ use of mobile financial services in 2011. This 78-page report, “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services” (March, 2015) examines trends in the adoption and use of mobile banking, payments, and shopping behavior and how the emergence of mobile financial services affects consumers’ interaction with financial institutions.
Gemalto Seeks Growth in NFC Market with NXP Partnership
Working toward growing its presence in Near Field Communications (NFC) payment systems, Gemalto has entered into an agreement with NXP Semiconductors N.V., as well as the mobile payments trial in Singapore.
Gemalto’s activities range from the development of software applications through the design and production of secure personal devices such as smart cards, SIMs, e-passports and tokens, to the deployment of managed services for our customers. The company has more than 10,000 employees and 2009 revenues of €1.654 billion.
The agreement with NXP, calls for Gemalto to integrate NXP’s MIFARE technology into its Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC), which will expand the mobile contactless payment market because MIFARE is one of the most ubiquitous mobile contactless services and Gemalto’s SIMs are used in a large number of mobile devices.
The agreement enables Gemalto to complement its existing NFC application portfolio with MIFARE DESFire and MIFARE Plus technology for its UICC security solutions. As a result, mobile operators and service providers will be able to offer a broad range of mobile contactless services thanks to the widened availability of UICC cards incorporating MIFARE.
This is the most widespread contactless technology worldwide and provides high levels of performance, flexibility and security in public transportation, access management, event ticketing and customer loyalty programs.
“MIFARE is already at the heart of contactless infrastructures around the world,” said Henri Ardevol,
vice president and general manager, secure transactions, NXP Semiconductors. “We are proud to
collaborate with Gemalto to offer the convenience of this technology to a new target of 5 billion mobile
phone users.”
“Adding the MIFARE capability to Gemalto’s NFC application portfolio is key for the mass deployment of
mobile contactless,” added Rémi de Fouchier, senior vice president, Trusted Services Management,
Gemalto. “We are enthused that more and more consumers around the world will enjoy the simplicity
and convenience of waving their mobile phone for couponing and stored value payment and transport
services.”
Source: RCR Wireless News, Gemalto