Near-field communication well matched to host card emulation
by. Brian Day
In my last blog, I excerpted the recently released white paper “The Mobile Payments Ignition Point.” The paper details the dramatic impact Host Card Emulation (HCE) technology is expected to have on the mobile payments marketplace.
In the excerpt below, I highlight near-field communication (NFC), one of the leading technologies in the emerging payments landscape, and offer insight into how and why it is the best pairing for HCE. Already powerful in its own right, NFC-powered payments received something of a shot in the arm when HCE came on the scene.
HCE technology was enabled for mainstream when Google opened up its operating system. Although there are currently other companies providing HCE technology, Google created it in response to wireless carriers that were blocking Google Wallet’s access to the secure NFC chips in their units.
…Recently endorsed by both MasterCard and Visa, HCE complements NFC hardware in two major ways: 1) the technologies work together to keep card issuers in play, and 2) they allow for a seamless user experience.
By blocking access to the secure NFC chips, wireless carriers kept NFC-powered mobile wallets off FI radars. With the introduction of HCE, however, FIs and other card issuers can insert their customers’ credit and debit accounts into payments apps created by third-party developers. Consumers, too, will be excited by the technology, as it allows them to make mobile payments with their existing card accounts. In a traditional NFC-based payments app, card credentials are stored on the phone itself. With HCE, the credentials are stored securely in the cloud, which allows users to access them virtually anywhere. This creates a really nice user experience where all consumers need to do is tap their device to access card accounts they already own. Additionally, with credentials stored in the cloud, it will be possible for consumers to access the data from multiple devices.
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