Both Visa and MasterCard have made separate announcements about taking advantage of Host Card Emulation (HCE) within the Android operating system to offer more mobile payment options.
HCE allows an NFC application on an Android device to emulate a ‘smart’ payment card, which avoids the need for payment details to be uploaded to a SIM card. As a result, mobile networks don’t need to be directly involved with mobile payment schemes.
MasterCard worked with Capital One on the initial pilot and with Spain’s Banco Sabadell on a separate European pilot. Further deployments are planned for this year.
Elizabeth Buse, Executive Vice President for Global Solutions at Visa, said “Our clients and partners around the globe are continuously looking for flexible, cost efficient and secure ways to enable mobile payments. The Android HCE feature provides us with a platform to evolve the Visa payWave standard, support the development of secure, cloud-based mobile applications, while at the same time offer greater choice to our clients.”
James Anderson, Group Head for Emerging Payments at MasterCard, said “Consumers are now shopping and paying in whatever way best fits their needs and lifestyles – and from every device they own. To meet their expectations for convenience, we need to accelerate the availability of services in the market. The use of HCE provides a very attractive way forward to launch an increased number of NFC-based offerings. We continue to set standards and deliver solutions to our partners and customers that deliver great experiences for safe and secure digital payments.”